^HH 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 
TWELVE  GATES:  A  Study  in  Catholicity 


THE  MEANING 
OF  EDUCATION 


BY 

JAMES  H.  SNOWDEN 


THE    ABINGDON    PRESS 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


$(= 


Copyright,  1921,  by 
JAMES  H.  SNOWDEN 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 9 

I.  WHAT  is  EDUCATION? 15 

1.  Its  General  Idea. 

2.  Education  a  Growth. 

^  3.  Is  It  Eight  to  Cultivate  the  Self? 
IE.  BEGINS  WITH  THE  BODY 23 

1.  The  Body  as  the  Physical  Basis  of 

Life. 

2.  The  Education  of  the  Body. 

III.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 31 

1.  Sense  Perception. 

2.  Reasoning. 

3.  Mental  Associations. 

4.  Memory. 

5.  The  Subconsciousness. 

6.  Imagination. 

7.  The  Workshop  of  the  Mind. 

8.  Knowledge  and  Intelligence. 

IV.  THE  SENSIBILITIES 50 

1.  Kinds  of  Feelings. 

2.  Uses  of  the  Feelings. 

3.  The  Education  of  the  Feelings. 

V.  THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WILL 56 

1.  The  Attention. 

2.  Motives. 

3.  The  Freedom  of  the  Will. 


6  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

VI.  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 65 

VII.  EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 76 

1.  What  Is  Habit? 

2.  The  Use  of  Habits. 

3.  Rules  for  Forming  Habits: 

(1)  Begin  with  all  your  might. 

(2)  Never  suffer  an  exception  in 

the  practice  of  a  habit. 

(3)  Seize  the  first  opportunity  to 

act. 

(4)  Keep  the  faculty  of  effort 

alive  by  gratuitous  exer- 
cise. 

YHI.  EDUCATION  AND  EXPRESSION 87 

IX.  EDUCATION  AND  APPRECIATION 92 

X.  EDUCATION  AND  EFFICIENCY 99 

XI.  EDUCATION  AND  LIFE 104 

XII.  EDUCATION  AND  SERVICE Ill 

XIII.  EDUCATION  AND  PUBLIC  SUPPORT.  ....   114 

XIV.  EDUCATION  AND  LEADERSHIP.  .  .116 


Education  commences  at  the  mother's  knee,  and 
every  word  spoken  within  the  hearsay  of  little  chil- 
dren tends  toward  the  formation  of  character. — 
Hosea  Ballon. 

Let  the  soldier  be  abroad  if  he  will;  he  can  do 
nothing  in  this  age.  There  is  another  personage 
less  imposing  in  the  eyes  of  some,  perhaps  insignifi- 
cant. The  schoolmaster  is  abroad,  and  I  trust  to 
him,  armed  with  his  primer,  against  the  soldier  in 
full  military  array. — Lord  Brougham. 

The  true  purpose  of  education  is  to  cherish  and 
unfold  the  seed  of  immortality  already  sown  within 
us;  to  develop,  to  their  fullest  extent,  the  capacities 
of  every  kind  with  which  the  God  who  made  us  has 
endowed  us. — Mrs.  Jameson. 

Education  elevates  a  man  above  the  pressure  of 
material  interests.  It  makes  him  superior  to  the 
pleasures  and  the  pains  of  a  world  which  is  but  his 
temporary  home,  filling  his  mind  with  higher  sub- 
jects than  the  occupations  of  life  will  themselves 
provide  him  with. — James  Anthony  Fronde. 

Till  we  all  attain  unto  a  full-grown  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ. 
— Paid. 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  beginning  our  study  of  the  meaning 
and  value  of  education  as  one  of  the 
chief  goods  of  life  it  is  encouraging  to 
consider  that  there  is  enough  of  this  kipd 
of  wealth  for  us  all.  Few  are  the  things 
of  which  there  is  enough  to  go  around. 
There  are  not  enough  diamonds  in  all 
the  world  to  bedeck  every  bridal  finger, 
nor  enough  pearls  to  throw  a  string  of 
them  around  the  neck  of  every  queen  of 
beauty.  There  are  not  enough  houses, 
and  there  are  not  even  enough  clothes 
for  all  the  people  in  the  world. 

It  is  physically  impossible  for  us  all 
/  to  get  rich,  for  if  the  total  wealth  of  the 
world  were  equally  divided  among  all 
its  people,  we  would  have  only  a  few 
dollars  apiece.  There  are  a  hundred  mil- 
lions of  us  in  this  country,  but  only  one 
of  us  can  be  President  of  the  United 
States  at  the  same  time;  and  so  very 
many  of  us  must  do  without  that  office — 
\  at  least  for  the  present.  In  any  empire 
\there  is  room  for  only  one  royal  crown, 

9 


INTRODUCTION 

and  any  rival  crown  would  be  quickly 
put  down,  though  its  suppression  might 
cost  thousands  of  lives. 

Material  goods  and  external  positions 
are  strictly  limited  in  quantity  at  any 
particular  time,  and  whatever  anyone 
gets  from  the  common  stock  leaves  just 
that  much  less  for  others.  There  is  no 
way  of  avoiding  or  thwarting  this  physical 
fact  and  mathematical  law,  and  this 
unrelenting  limitation  is  at  the  bottom 
of  much  of  the  unrest  and  unhappiness 
and  strife  and  tragedy  of  our  human 
world. 

But  this  principle  does  not  apply  to 
mental  and  spiritual  goods.  When  one 
man  discovers  or  develops  a  truth,  he 
does  not  leave  that  much  less  truth  for 
others;  on  the  contrary,  he  enlarges  the 
field  of  truth  for  all  other  minds.  Newton 
in  discovering  the  law  of  gravitation  did 
not  thereby  enrich  only  himself  and  im- 
poverish others,  but  he  enormously  widened 
\the  conceptions  and  multiplied  the  mental 
wealth  of  the  world. 
Truth  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  can- 
not be  shut  up  within  a  mind,  but  it  must 
be  shared  in  order  to  possess  it  fully. 
10 


INTRODUCTION 

We  do  not  know  a  truth  clearly  and  vividly 
until  we  impart  it  to  others,  .for  the  very 
process  of  teaching  or  telling  it  to  others 
clarifies  and  deepens  and  enriches  it  in 
our  own  minds.  For  this  reason  the 
teacher  is  always  the  best  scholar  in  his 
own  class  and  is  constantly  learning  more 
than  any  other  member. 

Developed  personality  does  not  leave 
less  room  for  other  persons,  but  makes 
room  for  them  and  enables  them  to  grow 
up  toward  the  same  height  of  attain- 
ment. Shakespeare,  with  his  enormous 
genius  and  gigantic  strides,  did  not  crowd 
other  dramatists  off  the  stage;  on  the 
contrary,  he  made  room  for  them  and 
lifted  them  to  a  height  they  never  would 
have  attained  had  it  not  been  for  his 
contagious  presence,  for  he  inspired  half  a 
dozen  minor  poets  to  write  dramas  that 
can  now  with  difficulty  be  distinguished 
from  his  own.  Every  great  man  helps  to 
make  other  men  around  him  great,  and 
instead  of  crowding  smaller  men  out  of 
the  world  he  causes  them  to  grow  to 
taller  stature. 

Education  belongs  to  this  class  of 
mental  and  personal  goods  which  are  un- 
11 


INTRODUCTION 

limited  in  quantity  and  are  multiplied  for 
others  as  each  one  acquires  them  for 
himself.  An  educated  mind  is  a  mental 
infection  in  any  community  and  imparts 
some  of  its  own  spirit  of  inquiry  and 
methods  of  sound  thinking  to  other  minds. 
And  truth,  which  is  the  field  and  suste- 
nance of  education,  the  bread  on  which 
it  feeds  and  by  which  it  grows,  is  as  wide 
and  unlimited  as  infinity  and  can  be 
stopped  by  no  terminal  until  it  impinges 
on  the  frontiers  of  the  universe  and  is 
lost  in  the  omniscience  of  God. 

There  is  no  danger,  then,  of  the  stock 
of  knowledge  being  cornered  by  any 
monopoly  or  exhausted  by  any  omnivorous 
minds;  the  supply  can  never  run  short 
for  any  of  us,  and  we  may  set  out  on  our 
quest  for  education  with  the  assurance 
that  we  are  aiming  at  no  unattainable 
ideal  or  visionary  dream,  but  are  turning 
our  feet  into  a  path  in  which  there  is 
room  for  us  all  and  striving  for  a  crown 
we  can  all  win  and  wear. 

For  education  is  as  democratic  as  hu- 
man nature  itself.  It  is  not  a  special 
privilege  of  a  few  and  does  not  constitute 
an  aristocracy  of  minds,  but  is  the  possi- 
12 


INTRODUCTION 

bility  of  all.  The  poorest  peasant  boy 
can  as  surely  attain  unto  it  as  the  mil- 
lionaire's heir  or  the  king's  son.  Its 
door  will  open  to  any  sincere  and  earnest 
knock  and  it  asks  for  no  golden  key. 
Lincoln  got  it  with  a  pine  torch  as  his 
only  light,  and  poverty  cannot  keep  a 
resolute  soul  from  this  wealth  and  king- 
dom. 

We  are  not,  then,  in  this  presentation 
of  the  meaning  and  value  of  education 
exciting  false  hopes  in  the  minds  of  our 
young  people  and  starting  them  out  on 
a  vain  quest,  but  we  are  simply  opening  a 
vision  that  may  become  the  victory  of 
every  one  of  them. 


13 


WHAT  IS  EDUCATION? 

1.  Its  General  Idea.  The  general  idea 
of  education  is  the  leading  out  (educere) 
of  our  powers  into  full  development. 
"Education/"  says  Ruskin,  "is  the  leading 
human  souls  to  what  is  b^fti  a.nd  thp 
making  what  is  best  out  of  them." 

Various  definitions  of  it  have  been  offered 
that  are  helpful.  Plato  said  :  "The  purpose 
of  education  is  to  give  to  the  body  and  to 
the  soul  all  the  beauty  anH  qf]] 


tipn  of_which  they  are  capable."  John 
Stuart  Mill  wrote:  "Education  includes 
whatever  we  do  for  ourselves  and  whatever 
is  done  for  us  by  others  for  the  express 
purpose  of  bringing  us  nearer  to  the  per- 
fection of  our  nature."  Herbert  Spencer 
said:  "Education  is  the  preparation  for 
complete  living."  Ruskin  wrote:  "Educa- 
tion is  the  leading  human  souls  to  what  is 
best,  and  the  making  what  is  best  out  of 
them." 

A    recent    psychological    definition    is: 
15 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

"Education  is  the  introduction  of  control 
into  experience/'  This  is  a  suggestive 
idea.  Experience  begins  with  the  instinc- 
tive urge  and  activity  of  all  our  faculties, 
physical,  mental  and  emotional,  but  if  left 
alone  they  are  wild-growing  powers  like 
weeds  and  run  into  all  kinds  of  disorder. 
They  need  stimulation,  guidance,  and  dis- 
cipline. Education  imposes  upon  us  from 
without  control  that  comes  from  the  wider 
and  wiser  experience  of  others,  of  parents, 
teachers,  schools,  literature,  and  of  the 
race.  If  an  infant  were  left  to  grow  of 
itself,  cut  off  from  its  human  kind,  it  would 
hardly  develop  into  a  human  being  and,  in 
fact,  it  would  quickly  perish.  But  even  if 
it  were  fed  and  protected,  it  would  grow 
into  only  a  half-human,  half-animal  crea- 
ture: it  is  education  that  trains  and  dis- 
ciplines it  into  a  person  and  perhaps  pushes 
it  to  the  level  and  height  of  a  supreme 
thinker  or  powerful  personality. 

Huxley  has  given  us  a  well-known  de- 
scription of  education  as  follows:  "That 
man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education 
who  has  been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his 
body  is  the  ready  servant  of  his  will, 
and  does  with  ease  and  pleasure  all  the 
16 


WHAT  IS  EDUCATION? 

as  a  mechanism,  it  is  capable  of; 
whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic  en- 
gine/ with  all  its  parts  of  equal  strength* 
and  in  smooth  working  order!  ready,  like 
a  steam  engine,  to  be  turned  to  any  kind 
of  work,  and  spin  the  gossamers  as  well 
as  forge  the  anchors  of  the  mind/^hose 
jnind  is  stored  with  knowledge  of  J:he 
great  fundamental  truths  of  nature  and 
of  the  laws  of  her  operations]  one  who, 
no  stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of  lire  and  fire, 
but/whose  passions  are  trained  to  come 
to  heel  by  a  vigorous  will/  the  servant  of 
a  jender  conscience:  who_has  learned  to. 
love  all  beauty,  whether  of  nature  OL  of 
art,  to  hate  all  .vileness,  and  to  respect^ 
other^  as  himself p 

This  is  a  comprehensive  definition  and 
covers  the  whole  man  in  body,  mind,  and 
heart.  Education  means  the  process  by 
which  this  training  is  given,  and  it  also 
means  the  result  of  this  process  in  a  fully 
developed  personality. 

The  Christian  ideal  of  the  perfect  man 
as  set  forth  in  Scripture  includes  the  same 
elements:  a  pure,  healthy  body  ("a  temple 
of  the  Holy  Spirit") ,  disciplined  into 
servitude  to  the  will  ("I  bring  it  into  sub- 
17 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

jection"),  a  developed  mind,  a  noble 
heart,  and  an  obedient  will,  all  combined 
into  symmetry  and  harmony,  a  full- 
statured,  broad-visioned  man  ("a  full- 
grown  man")  living  in  full  fine  relations 
with  men  and  with  God  and  growing  up 
"unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fullness  of  Christ." 

The  educated  man,  then,  is  no  narrow 
or  defective  person  that  lacks  any  essen- 
tial element  of  the  strongest  and  finest 
manhood.  He  has  no  right  to  be  ill- 
proportioned  and  misshapen,  in  any  respect 
unlovely  and  repellent,  round  and  rich 
on  one  side  and  shriveled  and  sour  on 
\  another;  but  in  him  all  excellent  human 
qualities — the  physical  and  the  spiritual, 
the  intellectual  and  the  emotional,  the 
passive  and  the  active — should  be  com- 
bined and  blended  hjto  symmetry  and 
strength  and  fruitfulness.  The  highest 
attainable  perfection  of  personality  is  the 
aim  and  end  of  education. 

2.  Education  a  Growth.  Education  is, 
therefore,  a  growth.  We  are  each  one 
born  as  a  bundle  of  possibilities,  a  germ 
that  has  in  it  the  capacity  of  endless  de- 
velopment. An  ignorant  man  is  not  yet 
18 


WHAT  IS  EDUCATION? 

fully  born,  he  is  not  yet  unpacked;  and 
the  whole  process  of  education  from  in- 
fancy to  the  end  of  life  consists  in  un- 
folding these  latent  faculties  into  full- 
orbed  development  and  power. 

Education  is  net>  therefore,  a  posses- 
sion thal^gjiJ^Jjat^ 
TSSamed  as  a  special  privilege,  but  it 
must  be  grown;  it  cannot  be  put  on  from 
without,  like  a  new  coat,  but  it  must 
bejdbvdg^  Everyone  must 

grow  this  stalk  of  wheat  in  his  own  patch 
of  ground,  and  this  soil  is  his  own  soul. 

Growth  is  a  slow  process  and  takes 
tjmce;and  the  slower  the  growth  the  hardier 
and  more  valuable  is  the  product.  A 
mushroom  springs  up  in  a  night,  but  an 
oak  sinks  its  roots  down  into  the  soil 
and  grips  the  rocks  and  builds  up  its 
trunk  and  throws  out  its  branches  through 
the  years,  and  it  takes  the  giant  Redwood 
thirty  centuries  to  push  its  top  up  three 
or  four  hundred  feet  into  the  sun.  A 
solid  education  must 


and  patiently  grow  up  through  many 
years,  and  even  all  life,  for  its^pYO^eSs  is 
nev^r  coiiiipJeted  in  this  world. 

Already  we  are  being  warned  against 
19 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

short-cuts  to  this  attainment.  Young 
people  are  often  impatient  of  slow  processes 
and  want  quick  results;  especially  are  they 
eager  to  get  to  work  and  play  their  part 
in  life.  But  it  is  as  foolish  to  rush  into 
life  unprepared  as  it  would  be  to  begin 
to  build  a  house  without  first  laying  a 
solid  foundation  or  to  attempt  to  sing 
or  to  play  a  piano  in  public  without  first 
learning  how. 

Many  a  person  has  stunted  his  personal 
development  and  injured  his  whole  future 
by  refusing  to  take  time  to  get  ready  for 
his  lifework  Such  haste  is  waste  which 
strong  crying  and  tears  in  after  life  can- 
not make  good.  Jesus  .himself  took 
thirty  years  of  preparation  for  only  three 
years  of  work,  and  we  are  following  his 
wisdom  and  patience  when  we  take  time 
to  get  ready  for  our  work. 

3.  Is  It  Right  to  Cultivate  the  Self? 
We  sometimes  hear  advice  to  the  effect 
that  self-cultivation  is  wrong  in  theory 
and  bad  in  practice.  Even  so  eminent 
an  educator  as  Woodrow  Wilson  is  quoted 
as  saying,  in  an  address  to  the  National 
Council  of  Boy  Scouts,  that  "character  is 
a  by-product,"  and  that  "a  man  who 
20 


WHAT  IS  EDUCATION? 

devotes  himself  to  the  development  of  his 
own  character  will  succeed  in  nothing 
except  making  a  prig." 

This  is  strange  talk  to  come  from  a 
schoolmaster,  for  is  not  the  whole  process 
of  education  from  the  kindergarten  to 
the  university  ^jjcuJiib^^ 
Are  we  not  to  build  up  a  good  body,  a 
disciplined  mind,  and  a  noble  heart? 
Is  not  "a  man  to  examine  himself,"  and 
see  wherein  he  falls  short  and  bring  him- 
self up  to  higher  standards?  Are  we  not 
bidden  to  "love  our  neighbor  as  thyself"? 
Unless  we  first  cultivate  the  self  we  shall 
have  nothing  of  worth  with  which  to  love 
and  serve  others. 

True  love  of  self  is  simply  appreciating 
and  guarding  and  developing  our  own 
worth  and  right  and  dignity,  and  such 
self-love  must  precede  and  condition  other 
love,  we  must  get  a  soul  before  we  can 
give  any  service.  Of  course  we  should 
be  on  our  guard  against  conceit  and  sel- 
fishness and  morbid  self -consciousness; 
and,  of  course,  we  can  develop  and  culti- 
vate the  self  only  as  we  serve  others, 
for  education  is  not  an  isolated  personal 
but  a  social  process  and  attainment. 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

We  can  develop  our  own  personality  only 
as  we  help  to  develop  other  persons;  we 
can  get  education  only  as  we  give  it. 
But  this  fact  does  not  annul  the  com- 
plementary fact  that  self -development  has 
its  necessary  place  in  our  life  and  is  our 
primary  duty. 


II 

BEGINS  WITH  THE  BODY 

1.  The  Body  as  the  Physical  Basis  of 
Life.  Education  begins  with  thebod^ 
for  at  bottom  we  aj?e*~Bone """and  blood 
and  brain.  The  body  is  the  basis  of 
all  our  life,  mental  and  moral  as  well  as 
physical.  Body  and  soul  are  intimately 
interwoven  into  a  mystic  unity,  and 
neither  of  these  parts  of  our  human  per- 
sonality can  be  complete  without  the 
other.  The  body  is  the  coarse  material 
stem  on  which  blooms  the  fine  blossom 
of  the  spirit.  And  the  breadth  of  the 
brain  has  something  to  do  with  the  width 
of  our  thinking,  and  the  volume  and 
warmth  of  the  blood  with  the  fervency  of 
the  feelings  and  the  force  of  the  will. 

Body,  and  soul  also  constantly  iriteract 
and  are  mutually ,  sensitive  and  sym- 

(^^ (Blp'1'*"19^'8*8*111''8*^^ 

pathetic  to  each  other's  condition  and 
operations.  Every  change  ?Jik~ the  body 
instafltt^  f  epoiS^  itself  in  the  soul,  and 
every  change  in  the  soul  at  once  affects 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

the  body.  The  body  sends  every  sensory 
stimulus  into  the  mind,  and  every  thought 
and  feeling  and  volition  expresses  itself 
through  the  body.  The  emotions  paint 
themselves  on  the  face,  a  sense  of  shame 
flooding  it  with  scarlet,  and  fear  blanch- 
ing it  white;  and  the  will  controls  all  the 
voluntary  muscles  and  through  them  acts 
upon  the  world. 

The  body  is  thus  a  marvelous  mechan- 
ism which  is  the  nimble  servant  of  the 
soul.  Its  hands  and  feet  are  the  means 
by  which  man  takes  hold  of  the  world 
and  masters  it,  and  his  senses  are  so 
many  fine  feelers  with  which  he  reaches 
out  and  touches  and  interprets  the  world 
at  every  point  and  even  feels  his  way 
out  among  the  constellations  to  the  most 
distant  star. 

Not  only  is  the  body  a  wonderful  ma- 
chine, but  it  also  makes  machines  which 
are  enormous  extensions  and  reenforce- 
ments  and  refinements  of  its  powers. 
Man's  telescopes  and  microscopes  are 
gigantic  eyes  which  penetrate  the  depths 
of  star  spaces  and  peer  down  among 
molecules  and  atoms.  His  control  of 
nature's  energies  enables  him  to  pass  with 


BEGINS  WITH  THE  BODY 

incredible  speed  across  continents  and 
seas,  to  prowl  around,  like  a  terrible 
shark,  under  the  ocean;  to  take  to  the 
air  and  outfly  the  eagle,  and  to  transmit 
his  thoughts  and  the  very  tones  of  his 
voice  over  continental  distances  as  in- 
stantaneously as  the  lightning's  flash. 
His  dynamite  and  deadly  gases  enable 
him  to  split  open  mountains  and  blast 
with  death  every  living  thing  over  wide 
areas  of  country,  and  his  powerful  ex- 
plosives and  great  guns  have  extended 
the  reach  of  his  arm  to  sixty  miles  and 
multiplied  the  punch  of  his  fist  millions 
of  times.  Humanity  may  well  tremble  at 
the  mere  thought  of  what  the  next  great 
war  may  do;  with  airships  loaded  with 
bombs  that  will  blot  out  cities  and  de- 
vastate countries.  Man's  wonderful  and 
ever-increasing  dominion  over  the  earth 
and  sea  and  air  is  the  result  of  his  mas- 
tery and  extension  of  his  own  body,  and 
there  is  no  limit  to  this  process. 

2.  The  Education  of  the  Body.    No  won- 
der,   then,    that   education   should   begin 
jd^jttg^^dy,  and  a  sound  mind  in  a 
sound  body  must  ever  be  the  starting- 
point  and  chief  initial  capital  of  an  edu- 
25 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

cated  human  being.  Yet  formerly  the 
body  was  not  included  in  the  scheme  of 
education  and  was  not  believed  to  have 
any  necessary  part  or  right  to  share  in 
this  process.  It  was  thought,  rather,  to 
be  the  right  thing  for  a  student  to  be  a 
pale-faced,  hollow-chested,  stoop-shoul- 
dered creature,  panting  for  breath,  and 
such  things  were  almost  taken  to  be  signs 
if  not  proofs  of  one's  being  a  scholar; 
but  now  they  are  only  symptoms  and 
evidence  of  bad  breeding  and  wrong 
living. 

It  is  now  seen  that  a  well-developed 
body,  symmetrical  and  strong,  supple 
and  sinewy,  with  straight  bones,  hard 
muscles,  broad  chest,  rich  blood,  grace- 
ful carriage,  and  trained  skill,  is  a  vital 
part  of  education  and  lies  at  Jl^J 


^^  business.      This  is  the 

meaning  of  the^affge^place  now  given  to 
athletics  in  the  schools  and  colleges.  The 
gymnasium  now  stands  side  by  side  with 
the  library,  and  athletics  is  required  along 
with  mathematics  and  ethics. 

Physical  education  should  begin  in  in- 
fancy and  before  birth  —  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes   said   we   should   start   with   our 
26 


BEGINS  WITH  THE  BODY 

grandmothers — and  then  should  be  con- 
tinued through  life.  It  now  begins  in 
the  primary  school  with  a  physiological 
and  medical  examination  of  the  child. 
Hair  and  scalp,  eyes  and  ears,  nose  and 
throat,  heart  and  lungs,  stomach  and 
liver,  muscles  and  bones,  every  organ  is 
examined  and  defects  are  noted  and 
remedial  action  is  taken.  Inspection  now 
looks  into  the  sanitary  condition  of  the 
school  and  sees  that  every  window  is  in 
the  right  place  and  every  seat  of  the 
right  size  and  shape.  The  child  is  thus 
given  a  chance  to  have  a  sound  body, 
and  this  greatly  improves  its  chance  of 
having  a  sound  mind. 

We  are  now  realizing  that  ill  health  is 
a  physical  sin,  if  not  personal,  then 
hereditary  or  social,  and  that  to  permit 
a  child  to  suffer  from  bad  conditions  is  a 
social  sin  against  its  body  and  soul.  The 
result  is  that  our  schools  and  colleges  are 
now  turning  out  fewer  anemic  weaklings, 
and  more  big,  lusty  fellows  that  have 
some  brawn  and  breath  that  can  back 
up  their  brains  and  carry  them  through 
life  and  stand  the  pace  of  to-day. 

The  great  war  disclosed  an  unexpected 
27 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

amount  of  physical  deficiency  and  in- 
efficiency in  our  American  manhood.  A 
considerable  proportion,  sometimes  half, 
of  our  young  men  were  rejected  out- 
right on  physical  grounds,  and  most  of 
them  needed  correction  and  reconstruc- 
tion at  many  points.  The  results  of  mil- 
itary training  in  the  camps  were  surprising. 
Many  a  boy  that  left  his  home  stoop- 
shouldered  and  hollow-chested  and  shuf- 
fled along  dragging  his  feet  after  him, 
came  back  erect  and  full-chested,  with 
color  in  his  cheek  and  sparkle  in  his  eye, 
and  walked  with  a  firm  elastic  step,  so 
that  his  whole  personality  had  undergone 
a  marked  transformation,  and  his  very 
appearance  attracted  the  attention  and 
excited  the  wonder  of  his  friends.  The 
discipline  of  six  months  had  made  a  new 
man  of  him. 

This  bodily  education  is  of  fundamental 
nature  and  value.  Physical  health  is  one 
of  our  greatest  national  assets,  immensely 
outranking  coal  and  iron.  But  we  should 
not  wait  for  a  war  and  military  training 
before  we  begin  this  discipline,  but  make 
it  a  vital  part  of  all  our  education  from 
infancy  through  the  primary  school  up  to 
28 


BEGINS  WITH  THE  BODY 

the  college  and  university.  We  are  doing 
this  in  an  increasing  degree,  and  this  is 
one  of  the  chief  improvements  in  our 
modern  education. 

Physical  education,  while  it  should  not 
be  overdone,  and  man  should  not  be 
treated  as  though  he  were  only  an  animal, 
thus  has  its  rightful  place  in  our  educa- 
tional life  and  has  come  to  stay.  Every- 
one should  have  an  elementary  knowledge 
of  his  body  in  all  its  organs  and  conditions 
of  health  and  should  give  it  constant 
attention.  Anything  that  injures  its  fine 
mechanism  and  delicate  tissues  is  a  physi- 
cal sin,  and  all  harmful  indulgences  should 
be  ruled  out  of  life  as  so  many  sharp 
knives  and  deadly  poisons  that  cut  and 
destroy  our  vital  organs. 

Especially  should  everyone  know  and 
obey  the  laws  of  health  as  to  proper  food 
and  air  and  sunshine  and  exercise  and 
sleep,  work  and  play.  There  are  billions 
of  cells  in  us,  and  when  any  of  these  are 
permitted  to  become  dormant  and  then 
dead  they  are  so  much  poisonous  debris 
in  the  system  and  are  the  seeds  of  disease 
and  death.  There  are  simple  exercises  by 
which  one  can  daily  stir  into  activity  all 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

these  cells  and  thus  keep  the  whole  body 
alive  and  healthy. 

And,  of  course,  every  one  should  train 
his  body  into  some  kind  of  skill  that  is 
useful  in  the  way  of  productive  work  or 
recreation  or  artistic  expression  and  joy. 
Skill  in  handcraft  not  only  provides  a 
means  of  making  a  living,  but  it  also  reacts 
on  the  mind  and  develops  in  it  a  sense  of 
reality  and  practical  efficiency  that  can 
hardly  otherwise  be  attained  and  that  is  of 
high  value  in  any  field  of  life.  "Health" 
is  only  another  spelling  of  "holiness"  and 
both  are  only  variations  of  the  word 
"wholeness,"  and  this  fact  is  an  indication 
of  how  deep-seated  and  vital  to  our  whole 
welfare,  physical  and  mental  and  spiritual, 
is  the  education  of  the  body  and  of  what 
constant  attention  and  care  we  should  give 
to  it. 


30 


Ill 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE 
INTELLECT 

THE  intellect  is  the  knowing  power  of 
the  mind,  and  it  unfolds  into  the  faculties 
or  activities  of  sense  perception,  concepts, 
reasoning,  mental  association,  memory, 
and  imagination. 

1.  Sense  Perception.  Sense  perception  is 
the  consciousness  of  external  objects  when 
the  mind  is  stirred  into  activity  by  the 
excitation  of  the  senses.  These  are  the 
organs  of  sight,  sound,  smell,  taste,  and 
touch,  which  are  nerve  ends  differentiated 
and  adapted  to  receive  various  kinds  of 
sensory  impressions.  Each  of  these  won- 
derful organs  sends  its  distinctive  kind  of 
nerve  wave  or  shock  up  to  its  special 
center  in  the  brain,  which  is  thus  a  cen- 
tral telephone  exchange  receiving  and 
sending  messages  from  and  to  every  part 
of  the  world. 

The  mind  now  has  the  wonderful  and 
quite  mysterious  power  of  interpreting  or 
31 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

experiencing  these  molecular  changes  in 
the  brain  as  perceptions  of  the  external 
objects  producing  them.  When  two  or 
more  perceptions  arrive  from  the  same 
external  object,  as  the  color,  odor,  and 
taste  of  an  orange,  these  several  percepts 
combine  into  a  unitary  percept  or  con- 
struct, which  is  the  object  as  we  know 
it  in  the  mind.  When  an  individual  per- 
cept or  construct,  such  as  an  apple,  is 
released  from  its  local  context  in  con- 
sciousness and  made  to  stand  for  or  repre- 
sent all  apples,  or  the  class  or  general 
idea  of  an  apple,  it  is  then  called  a  concept. 

These  percepts  and  concepts  are  the 
representatives  in  our  minds  of  the  real- 
ities of  the  objective  world,  and  it  is 
therefore  of  the  first  importance  that 
they  represent  them  accurately.  They 
are  the  constituent  elements  or  cut  stones 
or  pressed  bricks  out  of  which  we  build 
our  world.  But  if  the  bricks  in  a  build- 
ing, or  even  one  brick,  is  of  the  wrong 
size  or  shape  or  is  warped,  it  may  throw 
the  whole  structure  out  of  plumb  and 
may  even  endanger  its  stability. 

We  thus  see  the  fundamental  impor- 
tance of  fomiag  correct  pe 

^^^"••••MHMMlMH 

32 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

jcepjs.  Any  inaccuracy  or  error  in  them, 
caused  by  inattention,  ignorance,  mental 
blindness,  self-interest,  prejudice,  or  pas- 
sion, will  throw  us  out  of  gear  and  right 
working  relations  with  reality;  it  will 
ramify  and  pervert  all  our  ideas  and  plans; 
and  it  may  undermine  and  ruin  our  whole 
structure  of  thought  and  life. 

Keen  and  accurate  senses  are  a  high 
attainment  and  are  the  basis  of  right 
thinking  and  successful  achievement  in 
every  field.  The  way  we  see  things  de- 
termines the  way  we  say  them,  and  thus 
accurate  observation  is  the  foundation  of 
truth  and  truth-speaking.  The  way  we 
see  and  hear  and  touch  things  is  also  the 
way  we  endeavor  to  control  and  use  them; 
and  so  if  our  observation  of  them  is  loose 
and  inaccurate  and  a  misfit,  we  shall  miss 
connection  with  reality  and  wander  around 
blindly  in  the  world.  Trained  senses  are 
of  primary  and  immense  importance  as 
the  means  of  sound  thinking  and  practical 
mastery  of  things  in  life. 

We  should  then  give  the  greatest  care 

to  the  education  of  our  senses.    In  seeing 

things  we  should  train  our  vision  so  that 

we  shall  see  clearly  and  correctly,  and  not 

33 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

see  blurred  and  blotted,  distorted  and  per- 
verted images  of  them;  and  so  with  all 
the  other  senses.  In  seeing  accurately 
the  shape  of  a  leaf  or  the  color  of  a  bit 
of  ribbon  or  the  letters  in  a  word  or  the 
figures  in  a  problem  we  may  be  deter- 
mining something  of  far-reaching  impor- 
tance. 

We  should  beware  of  mixing  up  our 
subjective  opinions  and  prejudices,  and 
especially  our  own  interests  and  desires, 
with  objective  reality,  and  thus  shaping 
and  coloring  it  to  suit  our  own  ends.  Of 
courser  we  must  interpret  things  in  the 
light  of  our  own  knowledge,  find  this  is 
a  reason  why  we  should  be  constantly 
stocking  our  minds  with  richer  stores  of 
knowledge  that  we  may  ever/ see  a  richer 
world.  In  a  sense  we  mak&  the  things 
we  see,  for  we  contribute  to  them  the 
contents  of  our  own  minds,  so  that  we 
see  things  not  only  as  they  are  but  also 
as  we  are. 

But  this  process  does  not  justify  us  in 
contributing  any  false  color  or  element  to 
our  perception.  We  might  suppose  that 
as  we  all  have  the  same  senses  we  would 
all  see  and  hear  the  same  things.  But 
34 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

this  is  not  so.  Our  senses  are  subject  to 
growth  and  education,  and  we  all  see 
things  according  to  our  own  mental 
development.  In  fact,  everyone  sees  his 
own  world;  and  to  one  it  may  be  a  meager 
and  colorless  world,  and  to  another  it  is 
something  rich  and  splendid. 

Just  to  perceive  reality  as  it  is:  this  is 
the  foundation  of  truth  and  honesty;  it 
goes  deep  into  our  character  and  success 
in  life;  and  we  should  give  to  it  our  ut- 
most training  and  care. 

2.  Reasoning.  The  process  by  which  the 
mind  works  with  its  percepts  and  con- 
cepts is  its  reasoning  power.  This  con- 
sists of  comparing,  discriminating,  ana- 
lyzing, and  classifying  its  percepts  and 
concepts,  or  its  images  of  objects  and  its 
general  ideas,  so  as  to  discern  their  rela- 
tions, logically  combine  them  into  larger 
units,  trace  their  connections  and  especially 
their  causal  links,  and  deduce  their  con- 
sequences; and  thus  we  build  up  our 
knowledge  into  judgments  and  proposi- 
tions and  systems  and  draw  practical 
conclusions. 

Thus  starting  with  tiny  visual  images  in 
his  eyes  and  percepts  and  concepts  in  his 
35 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

mind,  the  astronomer  combines  these  into 
grand  generalizations  and  constructs  a 
sublime  system  for  the  whole  stupendous 
heavens.  Every  other  scientist  in  like 
manner  perceives  and  construes  the  facts 
in  his  special  field,  and  thus  our  knowledge 
grows  from  more  to  more.  Each  one  of 
us  thus  reasons  out  his  own  conclusions 
-and  plans  and  purposes  and  builds  his 
own  world. 

The  judgments  we  form  in  our  , minds 
by  our  reasoning  are  the  real  tools  with 
which  we  work,  the  hands  and  feet  with 
which  we  actually  take  hold  of  the  world 
and  move  and  mold  it  to  our  purposes. 
It  is,  therefore,  of  primary  importance 
that  we  learn  to  reason  correctly  and 
work  out  right  judgments,  for  a  wrong 
judgment  is  a  broken  rail  or  an  unbridged 
chasm  in  our  track  that  will  inevitably 
throw  us  into  the  ditch. 

The  reason  one  man  succeeds  and  an- 
other fails  generally  is  that  the  successful 
man  forms  right  judgments  that  run 
before  him  like  a  steel  track  to  carry  him 
with  safety  and  certainty  to  his  objective, 
whereas  the  unsuccessful  man  forms  un- 
sound and  visionary  plans  that  go  to 
36 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

pieces  on  the  rocks  of  reality.  Education 
at  bottom  is  thus  good  judgment,  or 
common  sense  raised  to  its  highest  power, 
and  we  must  develop  and  exercise  this 
power  or  our  doom  will  be  upon  us. 

3.  Mental  Associations.  Association  of 
ideas  is  the  tendency  they  have  of  cling- 
ing together  so  that  when  one  arises  in 
the  mind  it  brings  others  with  it.  It  is 
our  constant  familiar  experience  that  one 
object,  or  idea  suggests  another.  The 
sight  of  a  raincloud  suggests  the  idea  of 
an  umbrella,  and  this  idea  may  suggest 
the  fact  that  the  one  we  have  was  bor- 
rowed from  a  neighbor,  possibly  without 
his  consent  or  knowledge.  The  sight  of  a 
little  lock  of  hair  or  a  glimpse  of  the 
old  home  crowds  the  mind  with  a  thou- 
sand fond  recollections  too  deep  for  tears. 
When  any  idea  enters  the  mind  it  quickly 
draws  to  itself  a  cluster  of  associations, 
as  when  a  magnet  is  thrust  into  a  keg  of 
nails  it  comes  out  thickly  incrusted  with 
the  bits  of  iron. 

These  associations  often  seem  accidental 
and  whimsical,  but  they  are  really  gov- 
erned by  beautiful  laws  that  spin  threads 
of  connection  between  ideas  that  at  first 
37 


t 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

seem  to  have  no  possible  relation.  The 
most  common  of  these  laws  are  contiguity 
in  time  and  place,  similarity  and  contrast, 
and  causal  connection.  Objects  and  ideas 
that  have  been  experienced  together  once 
are  apt  to  appear  together  again,  and  any 
object  tends  to  suggest  its  likeness  or 
contrast,  or  cause  or  consequence. 

Every  object  and  idea  and  word  is 
surrounded  with  a  fringe  or  atmosphere  of 
associations,  and  as  every  mind  has  its 
own  stock  of  knowledge,  words  and  ideas 
have  very  different  meanings  and  sug- 
gestions for  different  minds.  The  idea  of 
a  prison  has  a  vastly  different  connotation 
or  meaning  for  a  convict  than  for  one 
who  has  never  been  inside  prison  walls, 
or  the  word  "music"  for  the  musician 
than  for  one  without  musical  training  or 
sense.  These  associations  give  breadth 
and  depth  and  wealth  of  meaning  to  words 
and  objects  as  the  overtones  in  music 
give  character  and  richness  to  musical 
notes. 

It  is  the  number  and  variety  of  the 
associations  with  which  our  minds  are 
stored  that  constitute  the  width  and 

v   wealth    and    power    of    our    mental    life. 

\  88 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

Every  mind  organizes  around  an  idea  its 
entire  contents.  It  perceives  every  new 
truth  in  the  light  of  and  brings  it  into 
relation  with  its  existing  knowledge,  a 
process  which  is  called  apperception. 

One  mark  of  a  man  of  genius  is  the 
immense  range  and  variety  of  his  asso- 
ciations by  which  he  calls  the  whole  world 
so  far  as  he  knows  it  to  fyis  aid  to  illustrate 
and  illuminate  his  ideas;  and  the  poverty 
and  impotence  of  an  ignorant  or  feeble 
mind  is  the  meagerness  of  its  associations. 
Multiply  your  associations,  store  your 
mind  with  large  stocks  of  facts  and  ideas 
through  observation  and  reading,  and  you 
will  thus  have  a  reservoir  in  your  mind 
that  you  can  tap  on  any  subject  and  draw 
forth  streams  of  thought  and  power. 
This  is  one  result  and  value  of  education. 

4.  Memory.     Memory  is  the  conserving 
/power  of  the  mind,  its  capacity  to  store 
up  and  retain  and  recall  its  experiences. 
It  is  the  treasure  house  of  life  in  which 
all  its  past  is  packed  away  and  out  of 
which  our  associations  emerge;  it  is  the 
>ad  of  continuity  that  binds  all  our 
days  together  into  conscious  unity.    With- 
out the  power  of  memory  we  would  not 
39 


thre; 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

be  conscious  of  our  past  and  would  not 
even  know  ourselves  as  identical  persons 
from  day  to  day.  It  is  thus  the  spinal 
column  of  personality. 

While  memory  is  not  the  highest  power 
of  the  mind  and  is  related  to  conservation 
rather  than  to  initiative  and  progress,  yet 
it  is  fundamental  and  enters  vitally  into 
our  whole  life.  Its  cardinal  virtues  are 
quick  reception,  vivid  impression,  tenacity 
of  retention,  and  readiness  of  recall,  and 
it  thus  puts  our  whole  stock  of  knowledge 
and  experience  at  our  fingers'  ends.  It 
should  be  disciplined  and  strengthened  in 
early  life  and  trained  into  an  expert 
librarian  and  ready  servant  that  will  on 
demand  produce  any  fact  or  idea  from  the 
stack  room  and  pigeon-holes  of  the  mind. 

5.  The  Subconsciousness.  The  subcon- 
sciousness  is  that  part  of  our  mental  life 
that  lies  below  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness. The  conscious  mind  is  subject 
to  great  fluctuations  in  its  volume  and 
level,  and  from  the  heights  of  intense  and 
glowing  thought  and  feeling  it  sinks  down 
through  dullness  and  drowsiness  and  sleep 
into  a  state  of  inactivity  of  which  no 
memory  remains.  Memory  has  its  store- 
40 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

house  in  this  deep.  All  our  mental  asso- 
ciations and  past  experiences  and  habits 
and  instincts  are  packed  away  in  its 
receptacles  and  emerge  at  call  from  these 
hidden  chambers  in  this  underground 
world  of  the  soul. 

There  is  reason  to  think  that  this  sub- 
conscious life  of  the  soul  is  large  compared 
with  its  conscious  life.  As  seven  eighths  of 
an  iceberg  is  under  the  surface  of  the  sea, 
so  the  greater  part  of  our  life  is  submerged 
in  these  depths.  This  is  the  night  life  of 
the  soul,  full  of  shadows  and  ghosts  and 
stars. 

The  subconsciousness  plays  a  part  of 
immense  importance  in  our  life.  All  our 
past  and  even  our  heredity  and  racial 
ancestry  are  sleeping  in  these  deep  cham- 
bers so  that  nothing  is  ever  lost  out  of 
our  life.  Up  out  of  this  huge  cellar  come 
swarming  through  its  trapdoors  and  back 
stairways  of  memory  and  association  the 
experiences  of  the  past  to  reenforce  the 
present.  Suggestion  has  the  power  of 
tapping  this  subterranean  reservoir  and 
letting  it  gush  up  in  jets  of  thought  and 
feeling. 

Everything  we  put  into  our  souls  will 
41 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

sooner  or  later  come  out  of  them.  Long 
years  afterward  on  the  most  unexpected 
occasion  and  in  the  most  startling  ways, 
"old,  unhappy,  far-off  things,  and  battles 
long  ago"  will  come  thronging  up  out  of 
this  dark  chamber  to  strengthen  and  com- 
fort us,  or,  like  ghosts  out  of  their  graves, 
to  trouble  and  plague  us.  The  admonition 
of  psychology  and  education  at  this  point 
is,  "Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence; 
for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life." 

6.  Imagination.  Imagination  is  the  pic- 
ture-making power  of  the  mind.  It  begins 
with  memory  images,  which  are  bits  of 
imagination,  and  it  constructs  images  or 
pictures  of  objects  and  scenes  from  the 
stores  of  memory. 

A  deeper  use  of  the  imagination  is  its 
power  of  realizing  objects  that  lie  beyond 
the  immediate  range  of  the  senses  and 
contact  of  the  mind  with  reality.  It  is 
the  mental  process  by  which  we  translate 
symbols,  such  as  words  and  mathematical 
signs  which  only  stand  for  things,  into 
the  meaning  and  power  of  the  things 
themselves.  Thus  in  studying  geography 
and  history  the  mind  has  certain  informa- 
tion about  places  and  events  that  are  not 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

immediately  before  it:  imagination  takes 
these  statements,  which  are  little  more 
than  symbols,  and  translates  them  into 
images  which  we  see  almost  or  altogether 
as  vividly  as  though  the  realities  them- 
selves were  present  to  us;  it  clothes  these 
skeletons  with  flesh  and  blood  so  that 
they  breathe  and  move. 

Knowledge  is  never  digested  and  assim- 
ilated into  our  thought  and  experience,  it 
never  becomes  alive  and  moves  us,  until 
we  thus  turn   it  into  pictures  or  vivid 
images  that  may  be  as  vital  and  vigorous 
as  the  living  realities.     In  all  our  studies\ 
we  should  visualize  our  knowledge  andy 
turn  it  into  living  experience. 

A  still  higher  activity  of  this  faculty 
is  the  creative  imagination  which  con- 
structs pictures,  plans,  ideals,  and  visions 
of  its  own;  and  thus 

".  . .  bodies  forth  the  forms  of  things  unknown, 
Turns  them  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

I   It  is  the  creative  imagination  that  pro- 
duces all  the  glories  of  literature  and  art 
and  all  the  great  achievements  of  men. 
Men  of  genius  are  eminently  the  chil- 
43 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

dren  of  their  imagination;  they  see  visions 
that  unveil  the  beauty  of  the  world.  A 
poet  sees  fairy  fancies  and  grand  cathedrals 
of  poetic  thought,  and,  with  his  <ceye 
in  a  fine  frenzy  rolling,"  he  puts  them 
into  immortal  lines.  The  painter  sees  in 
the  gallery  of  his  imagination  a  picture 
of  fair  features  and  glowing  colors  and 
deep  meaning,  and  his  brush  copies  it 
on  canvas.  A  sculptor  sees  an  angel  in 
a  block  of  marble,  and  his  chisel  sets  it 
free  until  it  begins  to  breathe.  A  musician 
hears  in  the  chamber  of  his  heart  sweet 
strains  and  grand  harmonies,  and  he 
flings  them  out  through  his  voice  or  his 
instrument  upon  the  air.  It  is  by  the 
same  power  that  we  frame  our  plans  and 
purposes,  set  up  our  ideals,  and  see 
visions  which  we  then  strive  to  realize  in 
conduct  and  character. 

Imagination,  then,  is  no  visionary  and 
vain  exercise  of  the  mind.  It  is  true  there 
is  a  form  of  this  faculty,  the  fancy,  that 
does  cut  loose  from  sober  reality  and  soars 
off  on  a  light  and  airy  wing;  and  such 
imagination  may  lead  us  into  daydreaming 
in  an  unreal  world;  and  when  this  is  in- 
dulged in  to  excess  it  is  apt  to  become 
44 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

unwholesome  and  harmful,  weakening  the 
will  for  common  work  and  breeding  dis- 
content. 

But  imagination  proper  is  the  most 
powerful  creative  faculty  of  the  mind. 
It  is  by  this  power  that  man  dreams 
dreams  and  that  over  his  path  hover 
visions  that  coax  and  woo  him  on  to 
larger  and  lovelier  things.  He  follows 
their  gleam,  he  hitches  his  wagons  to 
their  stars  and  rises  from  common  dusty 
roads  to  celestial  highways. 

The  world  has  learned  to  beware  of  how 
it  stands  in  the  way  of  imagination:  that 
invisible  impalpable  power  may  have  in  it 
more  than  ten  thousand  bayonets  or  a 
million  tons  of  dynamite  and  may  crush 
mountains,  shape  the  centuries,  and  create 
a  new  world. 

J  7.  The  Workshop  of  the  Mind.  We  have 
thus  looked  into  the  workshop  of  the 
mind  and  noted  the  mental  machinery  by 
'which  it  turns  out  the  ffiodiict^yf  thought.  _ 
The  senses  perceive  the  objective  world, 
reasoning  combines  percepts  into  judg- 
ments, association  enriches  any  object 
in  the  consciousness  by  causing  all  affil- 
iated ideas  to  flock  around  it,  memory 
45 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION\ 

conserves    the    experiences    of    life    ane 
stores  them  away  in  the  subconsciousness,^ 
and   imagination   paints   pictures   in   the 
mind  and  creates  new  ideals  which  lift 

Ijfr>  to  higher  IfVftJfi 


It  is  the  work  of  education  to  develop 
and  train  all  of  these  intellectual  faculties 
into  full  maturity  and  skill.  This  is  done 
through  the  courses  of  study  in  the 
schools  and  by  the  exercise  of  the  mind  by 
the  student  in  mastering  these  subjects. 
The  mind  grows  by  use  just  as  do  the 
muscles  of  the  body,  and  knowledge  is  the 
mental  food  that  feeds  and  develops  it. 

All  the  faculties  of  the  mind 
affinity  and  craving  for  truth,  and  they 
have  an  enormous  capacity  and  appetite 
for  it  which  can  never  be  satisfied.  The 
human  mind  is  omnivorous  and  will 
ravage  all  fields  of  truth  and  eat  up  the 
earth  and  sun  and  stars.  The  student 
must  whet  up  his  mental  appetite  and 
devour  great  quantities  of  facts  and  ideas 
and  thus  feed  his  mind  on  the  most 
liberal  diet. 

But  even  more  important  than  acquir- 
ing large  stocks^  of  knowledge  is  the  de- 
veloping of  his  power  to  digest  and  assim- 
46 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

ilate  facts  and  ideas  into  his  own  experience 
so  that  his  knowledge  will  not  be  the 
second-hand  contents  of  other  men's  minds 
and  of  his  memory,  but  the  first-hand 
products  of  his  own  mental  activities. 
Memory  may  be  only  a  pipe  tapping  and 
draining  off  other  men's  reservoirs  of 
knowledge,  but  reasoning  is  a  fountain 
within  the  mind  ever  springing  up  in 
new  ideas  of  its  own. 

To  this  discipline  of  the  mind  the 
student  must  give  his  patient  study 
through  months  and  years.  If  the  work 
is  a  drudgery  to  him,  he  must  endeavor 
to  kindle  his  interest  in  it  so  that  it  will 
become  his  delight.  If  he  will  hold  his 
mind  on  a  subject,  it  will  begin,  under 
the  play  of  mental  association,  to  gleam 
with  light  and  to  develop  new  points  of 
interest  until  it  will  become  the  glowing 
focus  and  hot  spot  in  his  consciousness 
and  may  become  his  enthusiasm  and  pas- 
sion. Mental  power  is  a  long  and  slow 
growth,  and  he  who  would  acquire  it 
must  pay  its  price  in  toil.  There  is  no 
royal  road  or  short-cut  to  education,  and 
only  by  becoming  a  slave  to  its  demands 
can  one  become  its  master. 
47 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

8.  Knowledge  and  Intelligence.  We  may 
note,  in  leaving  this  part  of  our  subject, 
the  important  distinction  between  knowl- 
edge and  intelligence.  We  are  apt  to 
confuse  the  two  and  to  think  that  one 
who  has  his  mind  and  memory  stored  with 
large  funds  of  knowledge  is  necessarily  an 
educated  person;  but  such  a  person  may 
have  very  little  education  or  mental  power, 
just  as  a  furnace  may  be  crammed  with 
fuel  and  yet  contain  little  fire  and  heat: 
in  fact,  the  fuel  may  only  smother  the  fire; 
or  the  mind  may  be  stuffed  with  knowl- 
edge as  the  stomach  may  be  overloaded 
with  food  while  it  has  little  digestive 
power» 

Knowledge  is  information:  intelligence 
is  developed  and  disciplined  mind.  Knowl- 
edge is  a  possession:  intelligence  is  a  power. 
Knowledge  does  not  necessarily  produce 
or  imply  intelligence:  intelligence  produces 
knowledge.  Knowledge  is  static  and  pas- 
sive: intelligence  is  dynamic  and  active. 
Knowledge  receives:  intelligence  creates. 
Knowledge  handles  the  old  and  familiar 
and  is  disconcerted  with  the  new:  intel- 
ligence is  stimulated  by  the  new  and 
meets  and  masters  novel  situations  and 
48 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

problems.  Knowledge  drills,  and  intelli- 
gence thrills.  Knowledge  is  useful  and 
necessary,  great  widths  and  immense 
stores  of  it  in  the  mind  by  so  much  en- 
large and  enrich  life,  but  intelligence  is 
the  principal  thing,  for  only  intelligence 
is  power,  and  with  all  our  getting  in  edu- 
cation we  should  develop  intelligence. 


IV 
THE  SENSIBILITIES 

THE  sensibility  is  the  power  of  the  soul 
to  experience  feeling,  or  a  state  of  excite- 
ment. The  feelings  are  an  infinite  com- 
plex, shading  into  one  another  like  the 
evanescent  hues  of  a  sunset,  and  they  do 
not  admit  of  such  exact  analysis  and 
classification  as  the  faculties  of  the  in- 
tellect. They  fall,  however,  into  several 
broad  classes. 

1.  Kinds  of  Feelings.  Sensations  are 
feelings  caused  by  direct  physical  action 
on  the  nerves.  They  include,  first,  the 
excitations  of  the  senses.  The  degree  of 
feeling  in  the  senses  varies,  being  very 
slight  in  normal  sight  and  most  pro- 
nounced in  touch.  Besides  the  senses, 
there  are  numberless  organic  feelings 
throughout  the  body.  Every  sensory 
nerve  in  the  body  is  sensitive  to  irrita- 
tion and  is  ready  to  respond  with  its 
peculiar  feeling. 

A  second  general  class  of  feelings  are 
50 


THE  SENSIBILITIES 

the  emotions,  which  are  feelings  caused  by 
the  presentation  to  the  mind  of  an  object 
or  idea.  The  sight  of  an  enemy  may 
throw  the  soul  into  a  violent  state  of  fear, 
and  of  a  friend  may  kindle  it  into  a  glow 
of  love  or  joy.  Every  object  or  idea  tends 
to  produce  its  own  peculiar  feeling,  and 
there  may  thus  be  as  many  shades  of 
emotion  as  there  are  objects;  but  they 
fall  into  a  few  general  classes,  such  as 
fear  and  hope,  hatred  and  love,  joy  and 
sorrow,  antipathy  and  sympathy,  the 
sublime  and  the  ridiculous,  aspiration  and 
reverence,  and  these  may  range  in  degree 
from  a  mere  tendency  or  slight  stir  of 
feeling  to  the  greatest  intensity. 

Feelings  have  a  pain  or  pleasure  tone, 
which  is  often  their  most  distinctive  and 
compelling  characteristic.  Every  feeling, 
whether  of  sensation  or  emotion,  has  this 
quality.  The  physical  sensations  are  at- 
tended with  the  pains  and  pleasures  of 
the  senses  and  appetites  or  organic  feel- 
ings, and  a  mere  idea  may  flood  the  soul 
with  pleasure  or  send  flames  of  agony 
leaping  through  it.  All  of  our  feelings  may 
be  arranged  and  marshaled  under  these 
two  master  captains  of  the  soul. 
51 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

Every  person  also  has  a  prevailing 
emotional  tone  or  disposition  which  is  a 
native  inheritance  and  is  persistent  through 
life,  though  subject  to  some  control  and 
slow  modification  by  the  will.  A  tem- 
perament is  the  emotional  pitch  to  which 
one  is  keyed  and  is  the  tonic  note  of  all 
his  music.  It  is  the  sounding-board 
which  gives  quality  to  all  his  moods,  as 
sanguine  or  phlegmatic,  choleric  or  mel- 
ancholy. It  is  an  emotional  lens  that 
gives  character  and  color  to  all  his  expe- 
riences. All  our  mental  states  sift  through 
our  peculiar  temperament,  as  light  through 
a  stained-glass  window,  and  are  tinged 
with  its  hues. 

2.  Uses  of  the  Feelings.  The  broad  use 
of  the  feelings  is  to  promote  the  volume 
and  value  of  life  and  give  it  interest  and 
motive.  Pleasure  attends  and  stimulates 
such  activities  of  body  and  mind  as  in 
the  long  run  are  conducive  to  life,  and 
pain  accompanies  such  activities  as  in 
like  manner  injure  or  hinder  it. 

It  is  the  feelings  that  give  us  a  sense 

of   the  value  of  objects.     Pure  intellect 

perceives    facts    and    relations,    but    not 

worths.     One  object  is  as  truly  a  part 

52 


THE  SENSIBILITIES 

of  reality  as  another,  and  the  intellect 
thinks  only  in  terms  of  factual  existence 
and  not  of  value.  But  the  interest  of 
life  resides  in  our  feelings.  It  is  not  until 
our  ideas  strike  these  mystic  strings  and 
wake  them  into  music  or  discord  that 
they  excite  our  interest.  The  feelings  are 
like  the  box  of  the  violin  or  the  sounding- 
board  of  the  piano:  the  strings  would  give 
forth  only  thin  and  insignificant  tones 
if  they  were  not  reenforced  by  these 
resonators  which  sympathetically  catch  up 
their  vibrations  and  give  them  volume 
and  depth,  richness  and  sweetness.  And 
so  out  of  our  feelings  arise  the  joys  and 
sorrows,  the  triumphs  and  tragedies  of 
life. 

The  feelings  are  also  the  immediate 
motives  that  move  the  will.  There  is  no 
tendency  for  the  will  to  act  until  the 
feelings  pour  their  flood  upon  it  as  a 
stream  upon  a  wheel,  or  as  steam  into 
the  cylinder  upon  the  piston  that  drives 
the  engine.  Objects  and  ideas  generate 
feelings  of  sensation  and  emotion,  and 
these  accumulate  volume  and  pressure 
until  they  overcome  the  inertia  or  inde- 
cision or  opposition  of  the  will  and  push 
53 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

it  into  action  or  explode  it  as  a  spark 
explodes  powder.  Pain  and  pleasure  espe- 
cially are  imperious  forces  that  move  the 
will  and  guide  and  govern  life. 

3.  The  Education  of  the  Feelings.  The 
feelings  are  subject  to  development  and 
control,  refinement  and  enrichment  as  are 
our  other  mental  faculties.  The  emotions 
are  generated  and  governed  by  our  ideas, 
and  our  ideas  are  largely  subject  to  our 
control,  and  thus  we  can  select  and  in- 
tensify and  control  our  emotions.  By 
suppressing  and  starving  unworthy  feel- 
ings and  stimulating  and  feeding  good 
ones  we  can  slowly  acquire  a  wholesome 
and  happy,  unselfish  and  noble  emotional 
disposition. 

Reading  literature  charged  with  pure 
and  deep  emotion  is  a  good  education 
for  the  feelings.  It  develops  them  in 
strength  and  sensitiveness  and  trains  them 
in  that  delicacy  and  refinement  which  we 
call  taste  and  which  is  the  mark  of  cul- 
ture and  fine  character.  We  can  also 
develop  proper  feelings  by  practice  and 
drill  them  into  the  heart  as  habits. 

Less  attention  has  been  given  in  educa- 
tion to  the  feelings  than  to  the  intellect, 
54 


THE  SENSIBILITIES 

and  yet  they  are  a  deeply  vital  part  of 
character  and  life.  The  lack  of  fine  feel- 
ings is  likely  to  indicate  selfishness  and 
boorishness,  and  no  one  can  be  counted 
educated  who  does  not  have  this  part 
of  his  nature  richly  developed  and  properly 
trained. 


55 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WILL 

THE  will  is  the  power  of  the  soul  to 
control  itself  in  its  thoughts  and  feelings, 
decisions  and  actions.  The  whole  con- 
sciousness is  a  stream  of  activity,  sinking 
into  the  subconscious  deeps  in  sleep  and 
then  rising  into  a  tumultuous  torrent  and 
overflowing  the  banks  of  the  soul. 

This  stream,  however,  is  not  an  un- 
governable flood,  sweeping  everything  be- 
fore it,  on  which  the  will  floats  as  a 
helpless  log  or  drifts  as  a  boat  without 
engine  or  rudder.  The  will  h&s  a  large 
control  over  the  stream  and  flood;  it 
has  a  rudder  in  its  hand  and  an  engine 
in  its  boat  by  which  it  can  steer  and 
drive  it  in  any  direction  to  its  own  self- 
chosen  destination. 

1.  The  Attention.  The  will  first  exer- 
cises its  power  in  attention.  As  the 
word  means,  this  is  a  "stretching"  or 
striving  of  the  mind  toward  an  object. 
The  mind  can  pick  out  any  particular 
56 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WILL 

object  or  idea  from  among  the  swarms  of 
ideas  in  the  consciousness  and  concentrate 
its  attention  upon  it,  while  other  ideas  are 
crowded  into  the  background. 

Once  the  attention  is  fixed  on  an  ob- 
ject a  wonderful  process  sets  in.  The 
associations  of  the  mind  begin  to  grav- 
itate to  the  central  object  in  an  increasing 
mass.  At  the  same  time  these  associated 
ideas  kindle  their  appropriate  emotions, 
and  thus  add  their  fuel  and  fire  to  the 
central  mass  and  turn  it  into  a  blazing 
heap  that  becomes  the  burning  focus  of 
consciousness.  The  attention  is  thus  like 
a  searchlight  which  can  be  swung  around 
over  a  city  or  landscape  at  night  and 
wherever  it  stops  there  the  spot  on  which 
it  rests  becomes  visible  and  brightly 
luminous,  while  other  parts  of  the  land- 
scape fall  back  into  the  night.  Wherever 
the  attention  is  stopped  and  held  in  the 
field  of  consciousness,  that  becomes  the 
glowing  center  of  the  mind. 

Now,  this  act  of  attention  is  the  primary 
power  of  the  mind  and  goes  far  toward 
measuring  one's  whole  mental  ability. 
Really,  the  only  thing  we  can  do  with' 
our  mind  is  to  hold  it  on  an  object  until 
57 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

our  associations  gather  around  it  and  pour 
their  fuel  upon  it  and  set  it  on  fire.  The 
student  should  give  his  utmost  endeavor 
to  developing  his  attention  so  that  it  will 
tenaciously  hold  his  mind  on  a  subject 
and  not  let  it  constantly  wander  off, 
perhaps  with  the  fool's  eyes,  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  "This  one  thing  I  do" 
should  be  our  determination. 

We  cannot  force  ourselves  to  do  a 
thing  by  a  sheer  act  of  will:  we  can  only 
hold  our  attention  on  it  until  it  grows  and 
generates  enough  interest  and  feeling  by 
its  own  associations  to  set  the  will  in 
action.  The  self-control  by  which  the 
will  can  concentrate  the  mind  on  a  sub- 
ject and  stick  to  it  is  the  root  of  educa- 
tion and  of  personality;  and  education 
should  aim  to  develop  and  discipline  this 
primary  power  of  attention. 

2.  Motives.  This  brings  us  to  the  fact, 
familiar  in  our  experience,  that  the  will 
is  not  an  arbitrary  action  of  the  mind, 
but  a  rational  process,  taking  place  under 
the  play  of  motives.  A  motive  is  any 
influence  tending  to  move  the  mind,  and 
motives  are  of  several  kinds. 

The  first  motives  are  instincts.  An 
58 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WILL 

instinct  is  that  which  instigates  or  "stings" 
us  into  action,  as  the  word  means.  It  is 
an  inherited  constitutional  tendency  to 
act  in  a  certain  way  when  the  appro- 
priate condition  or  stimulus  is  present. 
It  is  a  reflex  response,  a  latent  impulse 
or  coiled-up  spring  ready  to  act  as  soon 
as  it  is  released. 

The  important  fact  about  instincts  is 
that  they  express  and  satisfy  the  funda- 
mental needs  of  life  by  their  automatic 
action.  They  urge  us  into  action  along 
the  line  of  these  necessities  before  we  are 
able  to  reason  them  out  and  consciously 
supply  their  demands.  It  is  imperative 
that  we  should  eat  and  sleep  and  work 
and  play,  and  nature  does  not  wait  for 
us  to  find  out  these  needs  and  discover 
and  supply  the  means  of  satisfying  them, 
but  it  has  put  springs  within  us  which 
are  released  at  the  touch  of  the  proper 
natural  stimuli  and  push  us  into  action 
before  we  reflect  on  the  process.  Yet  in 
time  these  instincts  emerge  into  the  field 
of  consciousness  and  reason,  and  then 
they  are  subject  to  and  often  need 
enlightenment  and  education  and  control. 

Next,  ideas  of  action  are  incipient  mo- 
59 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

lives.  The  moment  we  think  of  an  action 
we  experience  an  inclination  to  do  that 
thing,  as  when  we  look  down  from  a 
height  the  idea  of  jumping  down  suggests 
itself  and  we  then  feel  an  impulse  to  give 
way  to  the  idea.  Ideas  become  proper 
motives  only  when  they  are  duly  con- 
sidered and  accepted. 

Our  conscious  desires  and  ends  are  our 
proper  motives.  A  desire  is  a  complex 
mental  state  consisting  of  an  idea  and  a 
feeling,  an  idea  of  an  end  or  object  to 
be  attained  and  a  feeling  of  craving  for. 
it,  or,  it  may  be,  antipathy  to  it.  Desires 
cover  the  whole  field  of  life,  embracing 
the  infinite  manifold  of  our  cravings. 
The  two  master  desires  are  for  the  pos- 
session and  enjoyment  of  good  and  for 
escape  from  evil,  these  corresponding  with 
the  two  primary  feelings  and  forces  of 
pleasure  and  pain. 

These  motives  are  subject  to  growth. 
They  may  appear  in  the  mind  as  mere 
sparks  of  light  or  germs  of  perception  and 
desire,  but  as  the  mind  dwells  on  them 
associations  begin  to  deepen  and  enrich 
and  intensify  them  and  thus  they  grow 
into  a  luminous  center  that  fills  the  whole 
60 


3 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WILL 

soul  with  light  and  heat  and  drives  the 
will  into  action.  Our  motives  are  thus 
subject  to  education  and  control. 

3.  The  Freedom  of  the  Will.  This  leads 
us  to  the  important  point  of  the  freedom 
of  the  will  or  of  the  soul.  Motives  are 
not  forces  thrust  upon  us  from  without, 
but  they  grow  up  within  and  are  our 
own  children.  They  are  not  only  born 
of  our  own  nature,  but  they  are  subject 
to  our  deliberation  and  selection.  They 
compete  for  our  approval,  but  they  do 
not  compel  it.  We  consider  and  weigh 
and  evaluate  them  and  choose  them  ac- 
cording to  our  own  standards. 

We  not  only  choose,  but  we  make  our 
own  motives  and  determine  their  weight, 
for  it  is  in  our  own  power  to  strengthen 
or  weaken  them  by  increasing  or  de- 
creasing their  associations  so  that  they 
grow  into  overmastering  heat  and  power 
or  wither  inio  paleness  and  impotency. 
We  can  feed  a  motive  into  fatness  and 
lusty  strength,  or  we  can  starve  and 
strangle  it  to  death;  and  in  this  power 
lies  the  very  core  and  certainty  of  our 
freedom  and  responsibility. 

The  will  is  thus  the  captain  of  the  soul 
61 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

and  the  crown  of  its  sovereignty,  pregnant 
with  victory  and  glory  or  defeat  and 
shame.  It  builds  man's  world,  tossing 
mountains  out  of  his  path  and  creating 
a  vast  splendid  civilization,  carves  char- 
acter and  determines  destiny;  and  every 
man,  however  humble  and  bound  in  by 
circumstance,  is,  not  a  wind-blown  bub- 
ble on  the  sea  or  atom  in  the  storm  of 
the  world, 

"But  this  main  miracle,  that  thou  art  thou, 
With  power  on  thine  own  act  and  on  the  world." 

It  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  chief  aims 
and  ends  of  education  to  develop  and 
train  the  will  into  self-control  in  the  power 
of  attention,  in  the  proper  evaluation  and 
selection  of  its  motives,  and  in  the  in- 
tensification of  them  so  that  they  will 
act  with  decisive  force.  Such  a  will  is  the 
real  measure  of  a  man.  A  strong  will 
is  not  to  be  confused  with  a  wayward, 
willful,  selfish,  and  passionate  will,  for 
these  traits  are  the  marks  of  a  weak  will. 
A  man  in  convulsions  is  not  a  strong 
man  though  it  may  take  ten  men  to  hold 
him:  he  is  the  strong  man  who  can  hold 
himself.  "He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is 
62 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WILL 

better  than  the  mighty;  and  he  that 
ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a 
city." 

The  three  fundamental  faculties  of  the 
soul,  as  we  have  now  seen,  are  intellect, 
sensibility,  and  will.  This  is  their  logical 
order  of  action,  though  they  are  inter- 
blended  and  simultaneous  in  their  activ- 
ities, one  of  them  usually  being  dominant 
at  a  time  in  consciousness. 

The  human  soul  is  thus  a  three-cycle 
engine.  In  normal  behavior  intellect  acts 
first  and  produces  thought;  thought  kin- 
dles feeling;  and  feeling  moves  the  will. 
The  action  of  the  will  results  and  rests 
in  a  state  of  satisfaction,  ^vhich  is  the 
end  of  the  particular  movement.  But  this 
state  or  end  at  once  suggests  or  stirs 
another  movement  of  the  intellect,  and 
then  the  process  begins  all  over  again; 
and  thus  the  mind  keeps  turning  through 
its  cycle  and  runs  its  endless  round. 

The  observance  of  this  order  is  of  the 
first  importance  in  education  and  in  life. 
The  rational  way  of  controlling  ourselves 
and  achieving  our  ends,  developing  our 
personality  into  full-grown  maturity,  and 
building  our  character  and  determining 
63 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

our  destiny  is  to  choose  and  develop  the 
proper  ideas  and  ideals,  which  are  then 
to  be  enriched  and  intensified  until  they 
generate  the  appropriate  feelings  and  mo- 
tives, which  will  then  determine  and  drive 
the  will  into  action.  Our  responsibility 
roots  back  in  our  ideas  and  begins  with 
our  primary  attention  by  which  we  make 
our  decisive  choices. 


VI 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

IF  education  were  to  stop  with  the  body 
and  the  mind,  it  would  have  reached  a 
considerable  height,  but  not  a  summit 
with  a  clear  sky  over  it  and  stars  shining 
high  above  it.  It  would  still  be  a  build- 
ing that  had  a  good  foundation  but  had 
not  risen  above  the  second  or  third  story. 
It  would  only  be  a  hut  squat  on  the 
ground  that  could  not  house  a  lofty  human 
spirit. 

Without  the  higher  life  to  control  and 
inspire  the  lower  life,  education  is  only  a 
danger,  and  may  be  a  curse.  It  is  then 
only  a  sharp  and  powerful  tool  which  a 
bad  man  can  use  as  skillfully  and  effi- 
ciently as  a  good  man.  There  are  uni- 
versity-trained bank  embezzlers  and  bur- 
glars as  well  as  college-trained  bank  cashiers 
and  presidents.  Such  an  educated  man 
may  be  an  educated  monster,  a  very 
devil  of  cunning  and  selfish  and  malignant 
power. 

65 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

Education  divorced  from  conscience  and 
character  lay  at  the  root  of  the  material- 
ism and  militarism  of  Germany  and 
helped  to  lead  her  into  the  unspeakable 
crime  and  ruin  of  the  Great  War.  A 
godless  education  is  the  curse  of  any 
nation  that  nurses  this  viper  in  its  bosom. 

The  faculties  of  conscience  and  faith, 
of  right  character  and  conduct,  of  right- 
eousness and  reverence,  are  as  much 
involved  and  as  rightfully  have  a  share 
in  the  process  of  education  as  the  organs 
of  the  body  and  the  faculties  of  the  mind. 
The  heart  is  biologically  older  than  the 
brain  and  has  deeper  and  more  vital 
needs  and  aspirations.  The  deep  instincts 
and  mystic  feelings  of  the  heart  are  vastly 
more  important  in  governing  our  char- 
acter and  conduct  than  is  our  thinking; 
for  life  is  immensely  more  than  logic  and 
it  is  surprising  how  little  part  our  reason- 
ing really  plays  in  our  practical  decisions 
and  conduct. 

Plants  and  trees  blossom  at  the  top, 
and  so  does  the  human  spirit.  In  its 
moral  and  spiritual  nature  it  flowers  out 
into  its  finest  and  richest  life.  This 
nature,  then,  ought  not  to  be  neglected 
66 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

while  the  lower  nature  is  being  developed, 
but  the  spirit  also  is  to  be  cultivated  and 
enriched. 

Developed  conscience  is  sensitiveness  to 
right  and  wrong,  with  a  resolute  determina- 
tion and  habit  of  spurning  the  wrong  and 
following  the  right.  It  is  an  intensely 
social  sense,  having  due  and  strict  regard 
to  the  rights  and  interests  and  welfare  of 
others.  It  crystallizes  its  decisions  and 
principles  into  habits  and  dispositions 
which  become  the  permanent  states  of 
the  soul  out  of  which  all  its  actions 
spring.  It  subordinates  appetite  and  pas- 
sion and  self-interest  to  its  decision  and 
control.  Conscience  thus  comes  to  its 
splendid  coronation  and  is  clothed  and 
crowned  with  royal  rights  and  power. 

Religion  is  our  conscious  relation  to 
God.  All  men  sustain  constant  and  intimate 
unconscious  relations  to  God,  as  in  him  they 
necessarily  live  and  move  and  have  their 
being.  They  can  no  more  escape  this 
relation  than  they  could  slip  put  of  the 
grip  of  gravitation  or  fly  above  the 
limit  of  the  atmosphere.  "All  things  are 
naked  and  laid  open  before  the  eyes  of 
Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do,"  or  "with 
67 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

whom  we  do  business."  All  men  are 
constantly  doing  business  with  God.  Only 
when  this  relation  emerges  in  the  field 
of  our  conscious  life  and  becomes  obedi- 
ence and  fellowship  does  it  become  religion. 

All  things  run  up  to  God  for  their 
final  explanation  and  completion.  "We 
cannot  study  a  snowflake  profoundly," 
says  Professor  Tyndall,  "without  being 
led  back  step  by  step  to  the  sun."  Strange 
that  the  great  thinker  did  not  see  that 
another  step  would  lead  us  up  to  God; 
for  "the  loaf"  takes  us  back  logically,  as 
well  as  poetically  in  Dr.  Maltbie  D.  Bab- 
cock's  verse,  through  the  snowy  flour  and 
the  mill  and  the  wheat  and  the  shower 
and  the  sun  up  to  "the  Father's  will." 

The  human  spirit  calls  for  the  Father 
of  Spirits  as  the  earth  calls  for  the  sky, 
the  flower  for  the  sun,  and  the  child  for 
the  father.  Human  life  is  fragmentary 
and  meaningless  and  hopeless  until  it  is 
filled  with  the  fullness  of  God.  "O  God," 
cried  Augustine,  "thou  hast  made  us  for 
thyself,  and  we  cannot  rest  until  we  rest 
in  thee." 

Religion,  then,  is  not  an  unnecessary 
and  redundant  addition  to  our  life,  a 
68 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

traditional  dogma  that  has  now  become  an 
outworn  superstition  and  wearisome  bur- 
den, but  it  is  just  our  life  itself  developed 
to  its  full  completion  and  finest  fruitage 
and  blessedness.  So  far  from  being  in- 
congruous with  or  unrelated  to  our  edu- 
cation, it  is  education  carried  to  its 
highest  power. 

Education  is  a  poor  and  pitiful  thing 
when  it  merely  develops  the  body  and 
the  mind  and  leaves  the  spirit  starved  and 
stunted.  Only  these  spiritual  ideals  and 
divine  influences  can  raise  our  life  out  of 
the  dust  and  lift  it  starward.  They  will 
complete  and  crown  all  other  results  of 
education  and  round  it  out  toward  the 
perfect  man. 

To  get  education  we  must  go  to  the 
masters  who  have  it  and  can  impart  it. 
Personality  is  ever  produced  by  person- 
ality. It  cannot  grow  in  isolation,  but 
must  unfold  in  a  social  atmosphere  in 
which  like  begets  like.  Education  is  pre- 
eminently a  matter  of  personal  contact 
and  contagion,  and  the  higher  it  rises 
the  more  is  it  subject  to  this  law. 

Religious  education  must  be  obtained 
from  religious  teachers.  Christian  parents 
69 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

and  the  ministers  and  teachers  of  religion 
can  impart  it  in  some  degree,  the  prophets 
and  apostles  of  the  Bible,  being  men  of 
religious  genius  touched  with  divine  light 
and  fire,  can  impart  it  in  a  greater  degree, 
but  the  master  Teacher  stands  in  a  class 
by  himself,  "a  Teacher  come  from  God," 
and  "He  that  cometh  from  above  is 
above  all." 

Jesus  speaks  as  the  Son  of  God  with 
power  on  earth  to  forgive  sin  and  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness  and  draw  us 
into  full  fellowship  with  the  Father.  All 
who  come  to  him  in  faith  and  obedience 
shall  be  renewed  in  their  hearts  and  slowly 
fashioned  into  his  likeness  until  they  "attain 
unto  a  full-grown  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 

Spiritual  education  also  uses  means, 
books  and  schools  and  exercises.  The 
Bible  is  a  great  textbook,  a  mass  of  re- 
ligious literature  that  stands  incomparable . 
and  supreme  among  all  the  sacred  books 
of  the  world,  full  of  light  caught  by 
prophets  and  apostles  who  stood  on 
mountain  peaks  of  inspiration  close  to 
God.  It  is  saturated  with  the  religious 
experience  of  a  race  that  was  gifted  with 
70 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

spiritual  genius  which  was  illuminated 
and  kindled  into  splendor  by  the  Spirit 
of  God.  Altogether  it  is  the  greatest 
educational  book  in  the  world.  Its  words 
are  spirit  and  life,  and  to  read  and  absorb 
and  assimilate  it  is  to  grow  in  grace  toward 
the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ. 

The  Christian  home,  with  its  religious 
training  and  example  and  atmosphere, 
must  ever  be  a  primary  center  and  means 
of  Christian  education,  and  the  church  is 
the  school  of  religion  where  we  come  into 
the  companionship  of  common  study  and 
prayer,  and  thus  gain  its  mutual  help  and 
inspiration.  And  the  Christian  graces, 
like  the  mental  faculties,  must  be  de- 
veloped and  disciplined  by  constant  prac- 
tice and  service  until  they  are  wrought 
into  habit  and  disposition  in  which  they 
act  spontaneously  and  are  crystallized  into 
Christian  character. 

The  Christian  school  as  truly  has  its 
proper  place  in  our  educational  system  as 
have  the  Christian  home  and  the  church. 
The  teacher  stands  next  to  the  parent 
in  vital  closeness  and  touch  to  the  child 
and  student  and  insensibly  imparts  moral 
and  spiritual  influences  to  the  soul.  A 
71 


v/       p 

*     ^d 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

Christian  teacher,  by  the  unconscious  in- 
fluence of  his  example,  without  ever  say- 
ing a  formal  word  on  the  subject,  can  yet 
lead  scholars  into  the  Christian  life. 

We  cannot  introduce  religious  instruc- 
tion into  the  public  school  supported  by 
public  taxation,  but  we  have  a  right  to 
emand  and  see  that  the  teachers  are  of 
Christian  character  and  influence  and  that 
the  atmosphere  of  the  school  is  friendly 
to  religious  faith  and  life.  A  teacher  of 
irreligious  and  skeptical  worldly  spirit  in 
the  schoolroom  is  a  contagious  danger  to 
the  scholars.  An  agnostic,  sneering  pro- 
fessor in  a  university  can  infect  the  whole 
atmosphere  of  his  room  with  the  germs 
of  materialism  and  irreligion.  Most  of 
the  teachers  in  our  public  schools  and 
professors  in  our  universities  are  men  and 
women  of  Christian  faith  and  character 
and  influence,  and  these  are  the  saving 
salt  of  these  institutions. 

But  because  religious  principles  cannot 
be  expressly  taught  in  public  schools  it  is 
necessary  that  we  should  have  distinctively 
Christian  colleges.  These  are  usually 
denominational  schools,  either  in  origin 
and  control  or  else  in  spirit,  and  they  have 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

played  and  still  play  a  large  and  vital 
part  in  our  educational  life.  While  they 
are  necessarily  connected  more  or  less 
formally  with  particular  denominations, 
yet  they  are  as  a  class  quite  unsectarian 
in  spirit  and  are  equally  open  to  youth  of 
all  religious  communions.  They  are  also 
smaller  colleges  than  the  great  institu- 
tions, and  in  this  they  offer  the  advantage 
of  closer  work  and  sympathy  between  the 
professors  and  students.  These  institu- 
tions should  be  loyally  sustained  by  their 
denominational  supporters  and  by  the 
public  at  large,  for  they  are  fountains  of 
the  most  vital  education;  and  our  young 
people  in  choosing  their  schools  should 
consider  their  claims  and  advantages. 

A  full-grown  personality!  This  is  the 
aim  and  the  ideal  of  education,  even  as 
outlined  and  so  admirably  described  by 
Huxley;  not  a  stunted  and  dwarfed,  ill- 
proportioned,  one-sided  and  misshapen  hu- 
man being,  but  one  that  stands  full  and 
finished  at  every  point;  not  an  over- 
developed, lusty  body  with  an  ignorant 
mind,  or  a  powerful  and  polished  intellect 
with  a  feeble  conscience  and  low  ideals 
and  selfish  passions,  without  God  and 
73 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

without  hope  in  the  world;  but  with  all 
powers — physical,  intellectual,  and  spir- 
itual— developed  into  symmetrical  and  per- 
fect personality. 

Yet  personality  contains  other  elements 
than  bodily  vigor,  developed  intellect, 
regulated  feelings,  disciplined  will,  and 
religious  character  and  life.  It  is  these 
plus  an  atmospheric  envelope,  an  elusive 
spirit  that  cannot  be  caught  and  defined. 
A  strong  or  rich  or  fine  personality  has 
something  about  it  that  escapes  our 
grasp  and  may  be  inexplicable  to  us  and 
even  to  the  person  himself. 

Some  of  these  atmospheric  elements  are 
a  sincere  sense  of  truth,  a  texture  of 
reality  in  the  soul  free  from  affectation, 
insincerity,  deception,  or  falsity;  deep 
convictions  that  are  immovable  roots  out 
of  which  the  whole  character  and  life 
spring;  unity  of  the  soul  in  which  all 
elements,  and  especially  all  discordant 
factors,  are  fused  into  one  molten  foun- 
tain and  stream;  unconsciousness  of  self, 
for  self-consciousness  distracts  the  unity 
and  spoils  the  beauty  of  the  soul,  and 
unconsciousness  of  self  is  the  final  touch 
of  perfection;  a  lively  sense  of  interest  in 
74 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

human  life  in  all  its  forms;  effervescent 
feelings,  broad  and  fluent  sympathies,  un- 
affected unselfishness,  a  sense  of  humor, 
kindness  and  courtesy,  grace  and  charm  of 
manner — these  and  other  elements  in 
varying  degrees  and  combinations  blend 
and  melt  into  that  subtle  atmosphere  that 
surrounds  a  strong  and  fine  personality, 
and  contain  its  secret.  While  these  elusive 
ingredients  that  constitute  the  overplus 
and  delicate  aroma  of  personality  are  not 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  will,  yet 
they  can  be  reached  indirectly  and  thus 
can  be  cultivated. 

This  ideal  should  be  the  aim  of  educa- 
tion as  it  is  of  religion,  and  should  be 
pursued  through  all  its  grades,  from  the 
primary  school  up  through  the  university. 
The  ideal  school  will  do  something  for 
the  body,  for  the  intellect,  and  for  the 
heart,  giving  each  its  due  proportion  and 
emphasis;  and  the  student  and  every  one 
should  be  on  his  guard  against  a  one- 
sided or  stunted  growth,  and  should  strive 
to  keep  all  his  faculties  growing  together 
that  he  may  obtain  a  symmetrical  educa- 
tion and  attain  unto  a  full-grown  per- 
sonality and  a  full-orbed  life. 
75 


VII 
EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 

WE  are  highly  plastic  beings,  and  one 
object  of  education  is  to  mold  us  into  a 
system  of  good  habits. 

1.  What  Is  a  Habit?  A  habit  is  an 
acquired  fixed  way  of  acting.  Anything, 
having  acted  in  a  certain  way  once,  tends 
to  act  in  that  same  way  again.  A  piece 
of  paper  folded  on  a  line  forms  a  crease 
along  which  it  folds  more  easily  a  second 
time;  and  all  material  substances  are 
subject  to  this  law.  A  new  machine  runs 
more  smoothly  after  it  has  been  in  use 
for  a  time,  and  a  suit  of  clothes  grows  to 
fit  the  figure  and  thus  becomes  more 
comfortable. 

Organic  beings  are  more  pliant  than 
inorganic  substances  and  quickly  wear 
grooves  of  action.  The  human  body  is 
highly  impressionable  and  easily  molded 
into  habits.  Muscles  and  nerves,  having 
acted  in  one  way  once,  tend  to  repeat 
the  action,  which  in  time  grows  auto- 
76 


EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 

matic.  It  is  thus  we  learn  to  walk,  speak, 
attend  to  our  work,  and  carry  on  all  the 
routine  affairs  of  life. 

Ideas,  having  been  associated  once,  tend 
to  cling  together,  and  memory  is  a  matter 
of  habit.  Judgments  tend  to  repeat  them- 
selves and  grow  into  fixed  opinions  or 
beliefs  or  prejudices.  When  we  feel  in 
a  certain  way  once  the  same  feeling  on  a 
similar  excitation  stirs  the  soul,  and  thus 
emotional  habits  are  formed.  The  will 
wears  itself  into  grooves  of  action  along 
which  it  slips  in  unconscious  smoothness 
and  ease.  Moral  and  spiritual  experiences 
are  repeated  and  thus  character  grows. 
"A  character,"  said  John  Stuart  Mill, 
"is  a  completely  fashioned  will." 

Under  this  law  of  habit  the  whole  body 
and  soul  are  plowed  and  grooved  into  a 
system  of  habits  by  the  automatic  action 
of  which  we  live.  By  far  the  greater  part 
of  all  our  activities,  language,  learning, 
conduct  and  character,  work  and  worship, 
becomes  cast  mnd  cooled  in  the  mold  of 
habit.  Mental  activities  not  only  repeat 
themselves  in  habits,  but  also,  like  seeds, 
bring  forth  a  multiplied  harvest.  This 
law  has  been  expressed  in  the  familiar 
77 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

saying,  "Sow  a  thought  and  reap  a  deed; 
sow  a  deed  and  reap  a  habit;  sow  a  habit 
and  reap  a  character;  sow  a  character  and 
reap  a  destiny." 

2.  The  Use  of  Habits.  The  law  of  habit 
is  of  tremendous  importance  in  life.  It 
trains  us  into  regular,  easy,  and  accurate 
ways  of  doing  things,  releases  us  from 
debate  and  hesitation,  effort  and  worry, 
sets  us  free  to  attend  to  novel  situations, 
and  lubricates  life  into  delightful  smooth- 
ness and  liberty  and  joy. 

Its  results  are  seen  in  the  skill  and 
often  the  marvelous  perfection  with  which 
we  learn  to  do  our  work.  The  pianist 
strikes  the  keys  of  the  instrument  with 
a  rapidity  the  eye  cannot  follow  and  yet 
no  finger  ever  misses  a  key.  At  first  these 
movements  are  made  with  awkward  and 
painful  effort  and  are  attended  with  notes 
or  noises  that  no  one  wants  to  hear;  but 
perfection  is  reached  through  the  long- 
continued  practice  by  which  the  muscles 
and  nerves  are  trained  into  automatic 
action. 

At  the  same  time  habits  take  over 
these  acquired  activities  and  release  the 
attention  and  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind 
78 


EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 

and  organs  of  the  body  to  do  other  work. 
We  thus  walk  without  paying  any  atten- 
tion to  our  steps.  If  we  had  to  think 
about  every  step  and  calculate  the  prob- 
lem of  maintaining  our  balance,  we  could 
not  do  anything  else;  but  we  hand  the 
whole  matter  of  walking  over  to  habit 
and  give  our  eyes  and  mind  to  other 
things.  This  is  an  enormous  economy  of 
our  time  and  attention  and  enables  us 
to  do  many  things  at  once,  while  we 
give  our  conscious  attention  and  effort  to 
novel  situations  and  complex  problems 
constantly  arising  which  habit  cannot 
solve. 

Habit  thus  enables  us  to  capitalize  our 
past  actions  and  acquired  skill  in  an  in- 
vested fund  of  autonomy  that  carries  on 
the  general  work  of  life.  It  is  "the  enor- 
mous flywheel  of  society,  its  most  precious 
conservative  agent." 

Good  habits  are  steel  tracks  on  which 
we  can  drive  ourselves  with  speed  and 
safety,  or  they  are  grooves  in  which  our 
life  slips  with  unconscious  smoothness. 
They  are  the  means  of  our  liberty,  giving 
to  life  its  freest  movement  and  fullest 
joy.  On  the  other  hand,  evil  habits  are 
79 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

chains  that  bind  us  and  at  last  become 
bondage  and  bitterness  from  which  strong 
crying  and  tears  cannot  release  us. 

We  do  not  do  a  thing  well  until  we  do 
it  without  thinking  how.  No  one  is  a 
good  mechanic  who  must  think  about 
how  to  hold  his  tools;  and  no  one  has 
good  manners  who  is  thinking  about  his 
manners.  Not  until  the  hand  has  for- 
gotten the  painstaking  processes  by  which 
it  was  trained  does  it  have  perfect  skill. 
The  musician  must  practice  long  that 
he  may  play  without  practice.  So  a 
mental  principle  or  a  Christian  grace  has 
not  been  thoroughly  wrought  into  us  until 
it  acts  unconsciously.  Must  an  honest 
man  try  to  be  honest?  No,  he1  will  be 
honest  without  trying. 

"Boy,"  said  a  slave  buyer  to  a  black 
boy  on  the  auction  block  in  the  slave 
market  of  a  Southern  city  in  the  old  days, 
"if  I  buy  you,  will  you  be  honest?" 

"Sir,"  said  the  boy,  "I  shall  be  honest 
whether  you  buy  me  or  not." 

Beneath  the  black  skin  of  that  slave 

boy  beat  an  honest  heart  whose  honesty 

was  ingrained  and  automatic  and  did  not 

depend   for   its   action   on   any    external 

80 


EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 

condition  or  even  on  any  conscious 
effort. 

Conscience  ought  to  act  without  being 
asked,  or  our  thinking  about  it.  When  a 
man  must  keep  working  with  his  stomach 
and  lungs  and  liver  he  has  a  poor  set  of 
vital  organs;  the  healthy  man  does  not 
know  that  he  has  any  insides.  So  when  we 
must  keep  working  with  our  virtues  and 
must  prod  them  into  action  they  have 
not  yet  been  educated  into  the  perfection 
in  which  they  will  act  spontaneously. 

It  is  true  that  we  can  reach  such  per- 
fection only  through  long  discipline.  We 
must  try  hard  that  we  may  do  without 
trying.  Moses  "wist  not  that  his  face 
shone."  He  was  filled  with  the  glory  of 
God  and  then  he  forgot  himself.  He  did 
not  know  that  his  face  shone,  but  others 
knew  it.  When  through  the  discipline  of 
education  and  divine  grace  we  attain  to 
any  degree  of  perfection  of  personality,  we 
do  not  need  to  tell  others  of  it:  they  will 
find  it  out. 

3.  Rules  for  Forming  Habits.  Professor 
William  James  has  a  chapter  in  his  Princi- 
ples of  Psychology  on  "Habit"  which  is  a 
classic  on  the  subject.  He  lays  down  four 
81 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

rules  for  forming  habits,  which  we  here 
condense  and  state  in  nontechnical,  popu- 
lar language: 

(1)  The  first  rule  is:  Begin  with  all 
your  might.  When  we  start  on  any  line 
of  conduct  with  half-hearted  decision  and 
effort,  timidity  and  hesitation,  we  are  not 
likely  to  go  far:  hindrances  will  easily 
discourage  us  and  turn  us  back.  But 
when  we  feel  the  importance  of  the  new 
course  of  action  and  concentrate  our 
energies  upon  it  we  are  likely  to  start  off 
with  such  decision  and  momentum  as  will 
carry  us  through. 

There  are  two  ways  of  going  in  swim- 
ming. One  way  is  to  creep  down  into  the 
cold  water  an  inch  at  a  time  and  every 
inch  a  shiver.  The  other  way  is  just  to 
leap  in  in  one  plunge.  This  concentrates 
all  the  slow  successive  shivers  into  one 
intense  and  glorious  shock.  It  is  then  all 
over,  and  how  splendid  it  is  as  one  comes 
up  all  aglow  with  vitality  and  vigor.  Some 
young  people  start  to  school  or  enter  the 
Christian  life  an  inch  at  a  time,  but  the 
way  to  begin  is  to  take  one  decisive 
plunge.  Settle  the  matter  once  for  all, 
burn  your  bridges  behind  you,  and  take 
82 


EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 

a  step  from  which  you  will  not  turn 
back. 

In  further  elucidation  of  this  rule  Pro- 
fessor James  says:  "Accumulate  all  the 
possible  circumstances  which  shall  reen- 
force  the  right  motives;  put  yourself 
assiduously  in  conditions  that  encourage 
the  new  way;  make  engagements  incom- 
patible with  the  old;  take  a  public  pledge, 
if  the  case  allows;  in  short,  envelope  your 
resolution  with  every  aid  you  know." 
These  subsidiary  rules  admit  of  easy 
translation  into  the  terms  of  any  par- 
ticular habit  or  line  of  conduct.  For 
example,  in  entering  the  Christian  life 
they  mean  that  we  should  intensify  the 
motives  for  this  life,  go  to  church,  and 
make  a  public  confession  of  faith. 

(2)  The  second  rule  is:  Never  suffer  an 
exception  in  the  practice  of  the  new  habit 
until  it  is  thoroughly  established.  Each 
lapse  is  like  letting  drop  a  ball  of  string 
which  one  is  carefully  winding  up;  a  single 
slip  undoes  more  than  many  turns  will 
wind  again. 

A  rule  given  to  public  speakers  is:  "Dash 
cold  water  on  your  throat  every  morning 
when  you  wash,  for  three  hundred  and 
83 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

sixty-five,  not  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
four,  mornings  in  the  year."  There  are 
many  habits  to  which  this  rule  applies 
without  exception.  Truth,  honesty,  pur- 
ity, patience,  kindness,  love — we  are  to 
practice  these  virtues  always  and  every- 
where, "for  three  hundred  and  sixty-five, 
not  three  hundred  and  sixty -four,  morn- 
ings in  the  year."  One  single  exception  in 
these  things  drops  our  ball  and  unwinds 
more  than  we  can  wind  back  in  many 
turns. 

Rubinstein  said  that  if  he  omitted  his 
piano  practice  one  day,  he  noticed  it;  if 
for  two  days,  the  critics  noticed  it;  if  for 
three  days,  the  public  noticed  it.  We  can 
keep  ourselves  in  fine  tune  and  up  to 
concert  pitch  in  all  our  habits  only  by 
not  omitting  their  practice  in  a  single 
instance. 

(3)  The  third  rule  is:  Seize  the  first 
opportunity  to  act  on  every  resolution  you 
make.  This  warns  us  against  feeling 
emotions  and  making  resolutions  without 
turning  them  into  conduct.  Such  wasted 
emotions  weaken  us  and  wither  our  sensi- 
bilities and  make  it  more  difficult  for  us 
to  feel  and  act  the  next  time.  Some 
84 


EDUCATION  AS  HABIT 

people  like  to  indulge  In  emotion  as  a 
sentimental  luxury.  They  even  like  to 
cry — when  it  does  not  cost  them  anything 
in  the  way  of  sympathy  and  service. 

"The  habit  of  excessive  novel-reading 
and  theater-going/5  says  our  psychologist, 
"will  produce  true  monsters  in  this  line. 
The  weeping  of  a  Russian  lady  over  the 
fictitious  personages  in  the  play,  while  her 
coachman  is  freezing  to  death  on  his  seat 
outside,  is  the  sort  of  thing  that  every- 
where happens  on  a  less  glaring  scale." 
"There  is  no  more  contemptible  type  of 
human  character,"  he  further  says,  "than 
that  of  a  nerveless  sentimentalist  or 
dreamer,  who  spends  his  life  in  a  welter- 
ing sea  of  sensibility,  but  never  does  a 
concrete  manly  deed." 

Act!  act!  is  the  urgent  admonition  of 
this  rule. 

(4)  The  fourth  rule  is:  Keep  the  faculty 
of  effort  alive  in  you  by  a  little  gratuitous 
exercise  every  day.  That  is,  be  systemat- 
ically ascetic  and  heroic  in  little  un- 
necessary points,  practice  your  habit  on 
the  margin  of  effort  where  it  begins  to 
pinch  as  drudgery. 

Professor  James  ingeniously  likens  such 
85 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

asceticism  to  "the  insurance  which  a 
man  pays  on  his  house  and  goods.  The 
tax  does  him  no  good  at  the  time,  and 
possibly  may  never  bring  him  a  return. 
But  if  the  fire  does  come,  his  having  paid 
it  will  be  his  salvation  from  ruin.  So 
with  the  man  who  has  daily  inured  him- 
self to  habits  of  concentrated  attention, 
energetic  volition,  and  self-denial  in  un- 
necessary things.  He  will  stand  like  a 
tower  when  everything  rocks  around  him, 
and  when  his  softer  fellow-mortals  are 
winnowed  like  chaff  in  the  blast." 

This  rule  warns  us  against  indulgence  in 
relaxing  our  habit  after  we  have  acquired 
it.  We  must  keep  our  habit  in  condition 
as  the  athlete  keeps  himself  in  fine  fettle 
by  gratuitous  exercise  every  day. 

These  are  the  rules  of  a  master  psy- 
chologist, who  says  their  "ethical  implica- 
tions are  numerous  and  momentous." 
They  apply  to  our  whole  system  of  habits 
— physical,  mental  and  spiritual — and  they 
will  develop  in  us  such  habits  as  will 
make  our  life  regular  and  certain,  smooth 
and  delightful,  masterful  and  fruitful. 


86 


VIII 
EDUCATION  AND  EXPRESSION 

EDUCATION  develops  the  power  of  ex- 
pression. A  mind  shut  up  within  itself, 
however  splendidly  it  may  be  endowed 
or  richly  stored  with  knowledge,  is  yet 
a  dead  sea  into  which  many  streams  run 
but  out  of  which  nothing  comes.  While 
no  mind  can  be  wholly  self-contained, 
and  every  mind  must  find  some  expres- 
sion, yet  even  educated  minds  differ 
enormously  at  this  point.  A  mind  of 
comparatively  meager  resources  may  out- 
strip one  of  larger  and  richer  mental  life, 
because  it  has  freer  channels  through 
which  it  can  pour  itself  in  forceful  streams 
to  drive  the  machinery  of  the  world  or  to 
fertilize  the  fields  of  life. 

Language  is  one  of  the  most  important 
means  of  mental  expression,  and  is  a  vital 
part  of  education.  A  word  is  a  symbol 
that  expresses  and  transmits  thought,  the 
sign  of  an  idea,  the  bridge  that  connects 
one  mind  with  another,  a  telegraphic  or 
87 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

telephonic  wire  that  discharges  the  contents 
of  one  mind  into  another.  It  is  a  winged 
idea  which  flies  from  one  mind  to  another 
and  there  unloads  its  burden  of  meaning; 
it  is  a  crystallized  thought,  which,  being 
transported  from  one  mind  to  another, 
dissolves  back  into  its  original  thought  so 
that  the  two  minds  are  saturated  with 
the  same  meaning,  or  they  think  as  one. 

Words  are  plastic  and  iridescent  to  ex- 
press all  the  shapes  and  shades  of  thought. 
They  are  clean-cut,  like  sharply  minted 
coins,  with  clearness  and  precision,  or  they 
are  multilated  and  muffled  with  vagueness 
and  obscurity.  They  gleam  and  sparkle 
with  cheerfulness  and  wit,  or  they  are 
heavy  and  depressing  with  dullness  and 
stupidity.  They  are  icy  cold  with  haughti- 
ness, or  warm  with  sympathy.  They  shoot 
to  their  mark  as  poison-tipped  arrows, 
hissing  with  hate,  or  they  breathe  tender 
and  ardent  love.  They  speak  poniards, 
and  every  syllable  is  a  stab,  or  they  drop 
dew  and  honey.  They  can  forge  ponder- 
ous anchor  chains  of  thought,  or  spin  the 
most  delicate  silken  threads  of  sentiment. 

They  weave  the  web  of  our  common 
conversation,  transact  all  our  business, 
88 


EDUCATION  AND  EXPRESSION 

write  our  newspapers  and  books,  and  pro- 
duce all  the  glories  of  our  literature.  They 
furnish  the  novelist  with  the  colors  for 
his  pictures  of  life,  the  poet  with  the 
airy  draperies  for  his  dreams,  and  the 
orator  with  the  majesty  and  music  of  his 
eloquence. 

Words  have  in  them  the  promise  and 
potency  of  all  life.  They  are  big  with 
the  issues  of  time  and  eternity.  They 
have  kindled  wars  and  slain  empires,  and 
they  have  been  the  white-winged  angels 
of  peace.  A  single  word  has  saved  a  soul 
or  broken  a  heart. 

There  is  no  use  in  seeing  things  unless 
we  can  say  them;  and  we  do  not  really 
know  more  than  we  can  say.  Style  is  not 
thought,  but  it  is  the  door  that  sets  it 
free,  or  the  dress  that  makes  it  attractive, 
or  the  power  that  drives  it  home.  Knowl- 
edge is  steel  in  the  bar;  forceful  expression 
is  the  same  steel  in  the  keen  polished 
blade.  Knowledge  is  electricity  stored  up 
in  the  battery;  vivid  expression  is  the 
bright,  swift  flash.  Knowledge  is  the 
bullet;  style  is  the  powder  that  sends  it 
to  its  mark. 

Wonderful  is  the  power  of  a  striking 
89 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

sentence;  phrases  have  made  history.  To 
be  able  to  put  a  thought  into  forceful 
statement,  apt  phrase,  or  brilliant  epigram 
is  often  to  carry  conviction  and  win  the 
day. 

Some  of  the  primary  virtues  of  good 
style  are  clearness,  conciseness,  simplicity, 
directness,  purity,  force,  and  finish.  Such 
a  style  costs  time  and  unwearied  practice 
and  patience,  but  it  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  tools  of  life,  one  of  the  finest  of 
accomplishments,  and  is  one  of  the  high- 
est products  of  education. 

"The  greatest  thing  the  human  soul 
ever  does,"  says  Ruskin,  "is  to  see  a 
thing  and  then  tell  in  a  plain  way  what  it 
saw."  We  may  not  think  that  he  told 
us  anything  in  a  plain  style  in  his  pages 
of  gold  incrusted  with  gems,  but  then 
he  did  tell  us  in  a  plain  way  what  he 
saw.  And  former  President  Eliot  says 
that  if  there  be  any  one  mark  of  educa- 
tion, it  is  the  ability  to  express  one's 
thoughts  in  clear  and  accurate  language. 
Choice  diction  is  a  fine  art  and  a  beau- 
tiful accomplishment.  Words  fitly  spoken 
are  like  apples  of  gold  in  baskets  of  silver. 

This  is  a  faculty  and  a  grace  that  every- 
90 


EDUCATION  AND  EXPRESSION 

one  can  in  'some  degree  acquire,  and  to 
few  subjects  should  students  give  more 
effort  and  assiduity  as  they  persistently 
endeavor  to  discover  its  principles  and 
master  its  art.  The  practical  value  of 
their  education  will  in  no  small  degree  be 
measured  by  their  proficiency  at  this 
point.  . 


91 


IX 

EDUCATION  AND  APPRECIATION 

How  big  is  your  world?  We  might  think 
that  we  all  see  the  same  stars  and  that  one 
man's  world  is  just  as  large  as  another's. 
But  not  so:  everyone's  world  is  bounded 
by  his  knowledge  and  insight  and  every- 
one sees  and  lives  in  his  own  world.  The 
ox  has  eyes  as  good  as  ours,  but  its  world 
is  confined  to  its  pasture  field  and  feed 
trough  and  never  gets  outside  of  this  little 
horizon.  Some  human  beings  are  yet  in 
the  bovine  stage  of  existence. 

The  scientific  man  lives  in  an  immensely 
larger  world  than  even  the  average  edu- 
cated person,  because  he  has  penetrated 
farther  into  the  spaces  and  recesses  and 
mysteries  of  nature.  "When  Alfred  Rus- 
sel  Wallace,"  we  read,  "was  gathering  in 
South  America  his  botanical  and  zoological 
specimens,  the  natives  of  the  Amazon 
Valley  thought  him  mad.  He  paid  them 
handsomely  to  catch  creatures  for  which 
they  could  discover  no  use  at  all.  To 


EDUCATION  AND  APPRECIATION 

him  the  great  forests  of  Bolivia  and 
Brazil  were  alive  with  sensation.  They 
fascinated  and  enthralled  him.  But  the 
black  men  could  not  understand  it.  They 
saw  no  reason  for  his  rapture.  Yet  his 
wonder  was  not  the  outcome  of  ignorance; 
it  was  the  outcome  of  knowledge." 

The  artist  sees  a  world  of  beauty  to 
which  other  eyes  may  be  blind.  When 
Turner  showed  one  of  his  sunsets  to  a 
friend  and  the  friend  remarked  that  he 
had  never  seen  such  a  sunset,  the  painter 
replied,  "Don't  you  wish  you  could?" 
Ruskin,  illustrating  Turner's  range  of 
interest,  says  of  him:  "One  hour  he  is 
interested  in  a  gust  of  wind  blowing  away 
an  old  woman's  cap;  the  next  he  is  paint- 
ing the  Fifth  Plague  of  Egypt.  A  soldier's 
wife  resting  by  the  roadside  is  not  be- 
neath his  sympathy;  Rizpah  watching  the 
dead  bodies  of  her  sons  not  above  it. 
Nothing  can  possibly  be  so  mean  that 
it  will  not  interest  his  whole  mind  and 
carry  away  his  whole  heart."  As  every- 
one sees  his  own  world,  the  size  of  the 
world  that  is  seen  depends  on  the  size 
of  the  mind  that  is  seeing. 
-K  Education  enlarges  and  enriches  our 
93 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

appreciation  and  enjoyment  of  the  world. 
It  broadens  the  mind  so  as  to  bring  it 
into  contact  with  the  world  at  multiplied 
points.  The  undeveloped  man  touches  it 
at  only  a  few  points,  mostly  those  of  his 
physical  appetites  and  needs.  As  the 
mind  unfolds  it  begins  to  throw  out  its 
awakened  faculties,  like  so  many  sensitive 
antennae  or  tentacles,  to  lay  hold  of  the 
world,  embrace  the  globe  and  reach  out 
among  the  stars  until  they  impinge  on  the 
outmost  rim  of  the  universe. 

All  the  senses  are  to  be  trained  and 
refined  to  perceive  the  wealth  of  interest 
and  beauty  in  the  world  to  which  the 
undeveloped  mind  is  blind.  Nature  then 
discloses  wonders  that  were  never  dreamed 
of  before.  Earth  and  sea  and  sky  become 
a  grand  picture  language  that  are  ever 
eloquent  in  thought  and  replete  with 
beauty;  blossom  and  bird,  grain  of  sand 
and  stupendous  starry  constellation  are 
crammed  with  interest  and  mystery,  fas- 
cination and  entertainment. 

Science  and  literature  and  art  are  vast 

worlds    of    the   purest    enjoyment.      The 

educated  mind  sees  the  world  through  the 

eyes  of  the  men  of  genius  who  have  un- 

94 


EDUCATION  AND  APPRECIATION 

veiled  and  glorified  it  and  beholds  it 
suffused  with  many-colored  splendor.  It 
possesses  all  things  through  the  owner- 
ship of  appreciation,  and  can  say  with 
Emerson : 

"I  am  owner  of  the  sphere, 
Of  the  seven  stars  and  the  solar  year, 
Of  Csesar's  hand  and  Plato's  brain; 
Of  Lord  Christ's  heart  and  Shakespeare's  strain." 

Education  makes  us  rich  in  inner  re- 
sources. It  fits  up  and  furnishes  the  mind 
as  a  home  and  library  that  contains  the 
means  of  its  own  contentment  and  satis- 
faction. It  makes  us  our  own  best  com- 
pany so  that  we  can  have  a  good  time 
with  ourselves.  "The  world  is  too  much 
with  us,"  so  that  we  are  too  dependent 
on  its  scenes  and  excitements.  Some 
people  are  always  craving  a  crowd,  itch- 
ing for  a  new  thrill.  Left  alone,  they 
are  instantly  discontented  and  miserable. 
They  have  no  inner  resources  and  must 
seek  diversion  and  entertainment  outside 
of  themselves. 

Education  releases  us  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  external  world  and  enlarges  our 
inner  world  of  freedom.  It  brings  us  into 
95 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

full  possession  of  ourselves  and  then  we 
have  found  our  richest  and  most  abiding 
wealth  and  worth.  The  degree  of  one's 
real  education  is  measured  by  the  width 
and  depth  and  delicacy  of  its  appreciations. 
A  narrow  and  barren  mind  has  few 
interests  and  enjoyments,  and  a  mind  of 
broad  education  lives  in  a  large  and 
wealthy  world.  Our  real  treasures  must 
ever  be  within,  and  we  should  strive  to 
deepen  and  enrich  our  minds  so  that  we 
shall  be  largely  independent  of  the  world 
and  careless  of  its  vicissitudes.  Jesus  told 
his  wondering  disciples  that  he  had  meat 
to  eat  that  they  knew  not.  Especially 
does  true  education  enable  us  to  appre- 
ciate relative  values  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  field  so  as  to  put  first  things 
first  and  be  rich  in  the  things  of  the  spirit. 
Human  life  is  growing  increasingly  com- 
plex and  rich.  The  savage  lives  close  to 
the  ground  on  roots  and  in  caves  and  has 
few  wants  and  aspirations  and  enjoyments 
beyond  elementary  physical  needs.  Our 
civilization  has  built  around  us  an  enor- 
mously wider  and  loftier  world  of  physical 
and  intellectual  and  social  and  spiritual 
needs  and  world-wide  interests.  We  now 
96 


EDUCATION  AND  APPRECIATION 

have  countless  possibilities  of  satisfac- 
tion of  which  primitive  people  never 
dreamed.  Mere  physical  subsistence  has 
become  the  smallest  part  of  our  life. 
We  live  in  the  spirit  more  than  in  the 
flesh  and  have  affinities  with  the  bound- 
less worlds  of  science  and  literature  and 
art,  of  business  and  trade  and  travel,  of 
national  and  international  affairs,  of  hu- 
manity and  of  the  outmost  circle  of  the 
heavens.  "To  me  as  Antoninus,"  said  the 
Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius,  "my  city  is 
Rome,  but  as  man  it  is  the  universe." 

Blind  eyes  and  deaf  ears  may  be  in 
the  presence  of  the  most  splendid  visions 
of  beauty  and  the  grandest  symphonies  of 
music  and  see  and  hear  no  more  of  these 
wonders  than  an  ox  or  an  oyster.  So 
may  we  live  in  our  grand  world  and  be 
blind  and  deaf  if  our  mental  and  spiritual 
faculties  are  not  awakened  and  trained  to 
perceive  and  enjoy  it.  A  broadly  de- 
veloped and  richly  stored  mind  lives  in 
a  vastly  bigger  and  batter  world  than  a 
narrow,  meager  mind  because  it  has  more 
soul  to  see  with.  We  should  get  educa- 
tion above  all  other  getting  in  order  that 
we  may  be  born  into  our  great  modern 
97 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

world,  move  in  its  cosmic  currents,  sit 
in  its  grand  amphitheater,  and  see  and 
appreciate  all  that  is  going  on,  and  thus 
enter  into  our  splendid  birthright  and 
opportunity. 


98 


EDUCATION  AND  EFFICIENCY 

WHAT  use  is  education?  Perhaps  a  few 
people  still  think  it  is  of  no  practical 
use  or  importance  after  it  has  passed  the 
common-school  grade,  and  may  believe 
it  is  only  a  fashionable  fad  or  luxury  of 
the  rich.  Others  think  it  is  only  a  way 
of  escaping  work  and  being  able  to  wear 
white  collars  and  cuffs;  and  still  others 
may  consider  it  as  the  means  of  getting 
and  holding  some  genteel  and  easy  job 
of  standing  behind  a  counter  or  clerking 
in  a  bank. 

Such  ideas,  of  course,  are  mere  prejudice 
and  blindness.  Education  is  developed 
manhood,  disciplined  personality,  and  this 
is  the  necessary  condition  of  all  worthy 
life.  Education  does  not  train  our  youth 
away  from  practical  life  and  honest  hard 
work,  but  trains  them  for  work.  Any 
sort  of  work,  even  digging  a  ditch  in  a 
street  or  field,  requires  some  degree  of 
knowledge  and  skill;  and  as  work  grows 
99 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

more  complicated  and  finer  it  calls  for 
larger  knowledge  and  higher  skill. 

It  will  not  be  affirmed  that  no  one  can 
achieve  success  in  the  various  fields  of 
life  without  the  education  that  is  ob- 
tained in  the  higher  schools.  Occasionally 
there  turns  up  a  self-educated  man,  such 
as  Herbert  Spencer  who  has  never  at- 
tended a  university  or  college,  and  yet 
attains  eminence  as  a  scholar  or  in  some 
other  line.  But  such  men  are  exceptional 
in  ability  or  in  diligence,  and  even  they 
might  have  reached  fuller  development 
and  greater  power  if  they  had  gone  through 
the  schools.  Even  Herbert  Spencer  would 
have  had  a  more  symmetrical  education 
and  a  more  catholic  mind,  and  probably 
would  have  been  a  sounder  thinker,  if 
he  had  had  a  university  training. 

The  chief  advantage  of  a  school  is  its 
atmosphere  and  associations.  It  is  con- 
tagious in  its  mental  and  social  life. 
There  is  little  education  in  a  book,  at 
least  for  youth,  because  a  book  has  no 
personality;  and  it  is  personality  that  is 
power  in  education,  so  that  Mark  Hopkins 
on  one  end  of  a  log  and  a  student  on  the 
other  constitute  a  university.  We  send 
100 


EDUCATION  AND  EFFICIENCY 

our  children  and  youth  to  school  and 
college  that  they  may  be  immersed  in  its 
intellectual  and  social  life  and  come  into 
contact  with  inspiring  personalities,  and 
then  they  may  absorb  the  vital  spirit  of 
education,  that  subtle  element  that  we 
call  culture,  through  the  very  pores  of 
their  skin. 

Such  education  fits  one  for  his  work  in 
life  whatever  it  may  be.  It  puts  him  in 
possession  of  himself.  It  develops  him 
into  a  disciplined  mind  that  can  thread 
its  way  through  any  subject,  sift  and 
arrange  its  facts  into  order,  and  put  them 
together  in  sound  judgments  by  which  he 
can  achieve  his  ends.  Education  is  trained 
ability  that  can  quickly  see  what  is  to  be 
done  and  how  to  do  it,  and  such  ability 
rapidly  pushes  to  the  front  and  wins  in 
any  field. 

The  world  is  becoming  more  and  more 
specialized  in  all  its  fields  of  labor,  com- 
petition is  growing  keener  and  standards 
are  rising  higher,  and  as  a  result  the 
workers  of  to-day  apd  to-morrow  must  be 
more  highly  trained  and  more  efficient 
than  the  workers  of  yesterday.  No  one 
can  hope  to  be  successful  as  a  lawyer  or 
101 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

physician  or  minister  or  editor  or  engineer 
to-day  who  is  not  equipped  with  a  first- 
class  general  and  professional  education. 
The  medical  education  of  yesterday  is 
now  so  antiquated  that  it  would  not  per- 
mit one  to  pass  an  examination  for  en- 
trance to  a  medical  college.  The  same 
fact  is  true  of  all  other  old-time  learned 
professions,  and  besides  these  many  new 
professions  and  technical  callings  have 
come  into  our  modern  world  that  demand 
a  high  degree  of  special  training. 

Applied  science  is  the  mother  of  in- 
vention and  progress  and  is  constantly 
devising  better  means  and  methods  of 
agriculture  and  manufacture  and  trans- 
portation, and  is  thus  lifting  the  world 
far  above  the  physical  condition  of  prim- 
itive people.  It  is  the  general  intelligence 
in  the  community  that  enables  men  to 
learn  and  carry  on  the  complex  mechanical 
processes  of  our  industrial  world.  Ignorant 
men  simply  could  not  make  and  manage 
these  machines;  and  if  we  shut  off  the 
light  of  education,  these  great  industrial 
plants  would  wither  as  vegetable  plants 
droop  and  die  in  a  drought.  To  maintain 
and  improve  our  intricate  material  civil- 
102 


EDUCATION  AND  EFFICIENCY 

ization  we  must  keep  up  our  educational 
institutions,  that  they  may  send  out 
their  stimulating  light  and  irrigating 
streams. 

Many  of  our  business  men  now  have  a 
college  education,  and  a  man  has  no 
chance  for  even  entering  the  learned  and 
technical  professions  without  thorough 
preparation.  The  parents  of  the  rising 
generation  should  see  this,  and  young 
people  should  see  it  for  themselves,  and 
they  should  press  with  eager  feet  into  all 
the  avenues  of  education  from  the  primary 
school  up  to  the  higher  institutions. .  It 
is  not  being  maintained  or  implied  that  all 
young  people  can  or  should  endeavor  to 
go  to  college  and  a  professional  school,  but 
such  education  is  the  necessary  condition 
of  service  in  these  higher  fields. 


103 


XI 
EDUCATION  AND  LIFE 

EDUCATION  not  only  imparts  efficiency 
in  technical  work  but  it  also  fits  one  for 
living  in  all  human  relations.  We  must 
beware  of  materializing  education  into  a 
mere  means  of  making  money  or  winning 
success  in  life.  This  is  to  turn  its  light 
into  darkness,  and  then  how  great  is  that 
darkness!  Then  a  man  sees  in  a  field 
only  so  much  corn  and  pork,  in  a  forest 
only  so  much  lumber,  and  in  a  mountain 
only  so  much  coal  and  pig  iron;  worse 
than  this,  he  may  use  his  education  only 
to  get  these  resources  and  products  away 
from  their  owners  without  proper  com- 
pensation. But  life  is  more  than  meat, 
and  the  body  than  raiment,  and  while 
education  does  produce  material  goods  in 
greater  abundance  and  finer  quality,  yet 
it  does  infinitely  more  than  answer  for  us 
the  questions,  What  shall  we  eat?  and 
What  shall  we  drink?  and  Wherewithal 
shall  we  be  clothed? 

104 


EDUCATION  AND  LIFE 

There  are  two  extreme  theories  of  the 
nature  and  object  of  education.  The  one 
is  the  view  once  popularly  entertained 
that  education  is  a  special  privilege  and 
artificial  distinction,  marking  a  man  as 
belonging  to  a  favored  class  and  separating 
him  from  common  work  and  life.  The 
college  graduate  was  viewed  as  a  man 
apart,  who  was  not  expected  to  take 
a  hand  in  the  rough  work  of  the  world. 
He  was  pale  of  face,  with  a  scholar's 
stooped  shoulders  and  unsoiled  and  un- 
calloused  hands.  Formerly  when  a  boy 
came  back  to  the  farm  or  village  from 
college  with  the  mysterious  sheepskin  of 
a  diploma  which  seemed  to  be  charged 
with  magic  charm  and  power,  he  was 
regarded  as  a  kind  of  superior  if  not  sacred 
being,  who  was  idolized  by  his  family, 
treated  with  obsequious  deference  by  the 
community,  and  was  not  expected  by  any- 
body to  do  any  work. 

College  courses  were  also  shaped  along 
the  lines  of  preparation  for  the  learned 
professions  and  a  scholar's  secluded  life, 
and  ancient  languages,  mathematics  and 
philosophy  were  the  principal  studies  in 
the  curriculum  in  which  there  were  no 
105 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

options,  while  the  more  practical  subjects 
of  modern  languages  and  applied  science 
were  given  small  room  and  welcome  and 
were  rather  regarded  as  intruders  from 
the  workaday  world.  This  was  the  purely 
cultural  theory  of  education. 

Extremes  beget  extremes,  and  reaction 
is  now  swinging  to  the  opposite  pole  at 
which  the  disposition  and  often  the  prac- 
tice is  to  cut  out  cultural  studies  and  put 
the  emphasis  on  utilitarian  subjects.  Al- 
ready Greek  and  Latin  have  been  cast 
out  bodily  from  many  colleges  and  uni- 
versities and  are  no  longer  required  either 
for  entrance  or  graduation.  Every  study 
now  must  show  that  it  bears  on  practical 
life,  which  means  business  and  money- 
making. 

A  college  graduate  on  this  theory  of 
education  need  not  know  any  other  lan- 
guage than  his  native  tongue,  unless  he 
wants  to  use  it  in  the  markets  of  the 
world.  He  need  not  know  mathematics 
beyond  the  range  of  his  practical  computa- 
tions in  figuring  out  his  profits  and  income 
tax.  He  is  not  expected  to  know  much 
about  philosophy,  but  he  must  be  able  to 
analyze  pig  iron  or  know  how  to  cure 
106 


EDUCATION  AND  LIFE 

pickles.     He  may  know  little  about  the  1 
soul,  or  whether  he  has  a  soul,  but  he  I 
must  know  all  about  soils.     The  pressure 
away    from    cultural    education    toward 
utilitarian  and  technical  training  for  busi- 
ness is  gaining  in  popular  urgency,  and 
the  extent  to  which  even  our  older  univer- 
sities   have    yielded    to    this    demand    is 
causing  serious  concern  to  our  conservative 
educators. 

There  is  truth  in  each  of  these  ex- 
tremes, and  the  truth  as  usual  lies  between 
and  combines  the  true  elements  of  both. 
The  true  view  of  education  is  that  it  is 
not  a  means  of  separating  a  man  from 
his  fellow  men  by  an  artificial  and 
sacrosanct  distinction,  but  ftf  TlT"**ng  TlJTlj 
more  intimately  and  usefully  with  thfon: 
&nd  it  is  not  simply  or  chiefly  a  means  of 
making  a  living  but  a  means  of  making 
a  worthy  life. 

The  educated  man  is  not  by  his  educa- 
tion set  apart  from  or  unfitted  for  human 
society  and  service;  if  that  were  its  nature 
and  effect,  the  less  of  it  the  better.  Edu- 
cation is  not  an  easy  way  of  escaping  work 
and  living  without  perspiration.  It  is  not 
synonymous  with  starched  linen  and  a 
107 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

silk  hat.  Even  the  white  necktie  has  lost 
its  significance  and  is  almost  as  likely  to 
be  worn  by  a  gambling  sportsman  as  by  a 
minister. 

The  educated  man  is  by  his  education 
all  the  more  a  man,  developed  and  full- 
grown  in  all  his  faculties,  fitting  into 
human  society  in  all  its  relations  and  the 
more  efficiently  filling  his  place  and  doing 
his  work  in  the  world.  He  has  wider 
visions  and  more  fluent  sympathies  so 
that  he  is  able  to  enter  into  other  men's 
conditions  and  needs  and  rights  more 
fully  and  helpfully.  Instead  of  being 
narrow-minded  and  lopsided  by  reason  of 
his  education,  he  is  more  of  an  all-around 
man,f ull-orbed  in  his  human  nature  and  life. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  there  is 
truth  in  the  utilitarian  theory  of  educa- 
tion. Preparation  must  precede  practice 
in  every  field.  We  are  not  born  with 
skill,  but  only  with  the  possibility  of  it 
in  germinal  faculties  that  may  be  un- 
folded and  trained  into  skill.  No  one  can 
offhand  run  a  locomotive,  or  perform  a 
surgical  operation,  or  preach  a  sermon, 
or  play  a  piano.  We  cannot  extemporize 
a  wheatfield. 

108 


EDUCATION  AND  LIFE  \ 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  vital 
truth  in  the  cultural  theory  of  education. 
Preparation  for  any  work  must  be  broader 
than  the  work  itself.  One  cannot  become 
a  good  lawyer  or  physician  or  minister 
by  rigidly  confining  his  preparation  to  law 
or  medicine  or  theology;  he  must  have  a 
broad  knowledge  of  other  subjects  for 
efficient  service  in  these  fields.  Even  a 
mechanic  needs  to  know  more  than  simple 
acquaintance  with  the  tools  and  materials 
with  which  he  works.  To  do  what  one 
does  well  he  must  know  more  than  he 
does.  Whatever  enlarges  the  mind  and 
enriches  the  emotions  and  disciplines  the 
will  prepares  for  better  work  in  any  field. 

This  is  why  young  men  now  go  to 
college  to  prepare  for  any  line  of  work  as 
well  as  for  the  learned  professions.  All 
knowledge  is  related,  and  Greek  and 
Latin,  logic  and  philosophy  are  not  remote 
from  and  useless  in  the  practical  affairs 
of  life,  but  contribute  to  that  general 
training  and  broad  thinking  that  are  the 
basis  and  means  of  success  in  any  field 
of  service. 

The  old  education  aimed  at  general 
culture,  and  so  far  it  was  right;  but  i\ 
109 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

went  too  far  in  separating  culture  from 
life.  The  new  education  is  in  danger  of 
going  too  far  in  the  opposite  direction  of 
divorcing  life  from  culture.  We  must 
keep  the  two  together  and  make  them 
help  each  other  and  round  out  life  into 
its  full-orbed  sphere.  Living  is  the  chief 
duty  of  life,  and  education  is  to  enable 
us  to  do  this  chief  thing  better  and  raise 
it  to  its  highest  level  of  fullness  and 
efficiency. 


110 


XII 
EDUCATION  AND  SERVICE 

ALL  these  powers  of  education  should 
run  up  into  service.  A  highly  complicated 
and  costly  mechanism,  such  as  a  watch 
or  a  locomotive,  should  pay  for  itself  in 
work  done.  The  more  expensive  it  is 
the  more  work  it  should  do.  An  educated 
personality  is  a  very  expensive  product; 
society  has  taxed  itself  heavily  to  pro- 
duce it,  and  therefore  it  should  justify 
itself  in  service  rendered.  It  is  deep 
selfishness  and  base  ingratitude  for  one 
to  acquire  an  education  that  equips  him 
with  large  powers  and  then  turn  them 
to  purely  personal  ends,  such  as  money- 
making  or  pleasure-seeking,  or  to  mere 
aesthetic  culture,  or  to  gilded  ease  and 
idleness. 

Education  that  simply  lets  one  slip 
through  the  world  so  as  to  escape  pro- 
ductive work  and  avoid  one's  share  of 
responsibility  for  the  world's  welfare  is  a 
blight  to  the  community  and  to  the  soul 
111 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

itself.  This  turns  the  soul  into  a  sponge 
that  sucks  up  everything  around  it,  in- 
stead of  making  it  a  fountain  that  sends 
forth  refreshing  streams.  The  educated 
man  is  that  much  more  of  a  man  and 
should  be  of  that  much  more  use  to  the 
world.  His  eye  should  be  clearer  to  see 
human  needs  and  his  heart  kinder  and  his 
hand  abler  to  meet  them.  His  shoulder 
shoujd  be  the  stronger  and  the  readier 
to  go  under  the  burdens  of  his  fellow 
men  and  to  help  carry  the  load  of  the 
world's  need.  His  presence  should  be  so 
much  wisdom  and  inspiration  and  cheer 
in  his  own  circle  and  in  the  community. 
The  wider  his  education,  the  stronger 
and  richer  his  personality,  the  wider  and 
deeper  should  be  his  sympathy  and  service 
and  sacrifice.  Much  has  been  given  to 
the  educated  man  and  woman,  and  of 
them  is  much  justly  required. 

The  educated  man  and  woman  enter 
the  world  as  so  much  leaven  to  impart 
the  contagion  of  higher  life  to  others. 
They  go  out  as  light-givers  and  light- 
reflectors  to  radiate  and  diffuse  light 
through  the  whole  community.  It  is 
highly  important  that  We  should  have 


EDUCATION  AND  SERVICE 

professionally  educated  people  among  us, 
but  it  is  more  important  that  we  have 
general  intelligence  and  ethical  character 
diffused  through  the  whole  mass  of  society. 

The  mountain  ranges  and  peaks  must 
send  their  waters  down  to  irrigate  the 
plains,  or  their  value  vanishes.  So  the 
social  value  of  professional  scholars  con- 
sists of  their  power  to  stimulate  and  enrich 
the  common  people. 

It  is  not  the  direct  light  of  the  sun 
that  fills  our  homes  and  illuminates  the 
world,  but  the  sunlight  as  it  is  reflected 
and  diffused  everywhere  by  the  countless 
particles  in  the  air.  Educated  peop]p  have 
freely  received  light,  and  now  they  should 
freely  give  it.  For  them  to  receive  the 
light  of  education  and  then  refuse  or  fail 
to  impart  it  to  others  would  be  as  selfish 
as  if  they,  having  found  their  place  in 
the  sun,  were  then  to  try  to  crowd  others 
out  of  its  light,  or  were  to  try  to  absorb 
all  its  light  and  shut  it  off  from  the  rest 
of  the  world.  We  get  this  light  that  we 
may  give  it;  and,  in  fact,  giving  it  is  the 
best  way  of  getting  it,  and  in  this  field 
it  is  literally  and  abundantly  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive. 
113 


XIII 

EDUCATION  AND  PUBLIC 
SUPPORT 

THE  social  blessing  of  education  is  the 
reason  it  should  and  does  receive  public 
support  from  the  common  school  up 
through  the  high  school  to  the  college  and 
university.  Some  people  may  look  on  this 
support  as  a  way  of  taxing  the  many  in 
the  interest  of  the  few,  but  this  is  a  short- 
sighted view.  Our  schools  of  all  grades 
are  fountains  of  intelligence  that  pour 
their  streams  out  over  our  whole  human 
world  as  the  clouds  shed  their  rain  over 
all  the  hills  and  valleys.  Shut  them  up  or 
curtail  them  by  withholding  public  sup- 
port, and  we  would  dry  up  or  diminish 
these  streams  at  their  source,  and  then 
all  our  life  would  wither  in  the  drought 
and  blight. 

We  owe  it  not  only  to  our  children  and 
to  all  our  youth,  but  also  to  ourselves  to 
keep  these  sources  of  education  well  sup- 
plied. In  hardly  any  other  way  than  by 
114 


EDUCATION  AND  PUBLIC  SUPPORT 

these  taxes  does  our  money  do  so  much 
good  for  us  and  for  our  human  kind,  and 
to  cut  off  this  support  would  be  to  save 
a  few  dollars  at  the  expense  of  personal 
and  public  disaster.  No  one  is  so  unin- 
telligent as  not  to  see  the  use  of  the 
clouds  in  the  atmosphere  and  the  sun  in 
the  sky.  Everybody  ought  to  have  the 
discernment  to  see  that  our  schools  are 
clouds  full  of  rain  and  suns  radiating  light, 
and  be  glad  to  contribute  to  their  support. 
Our  higher  institutions  of  learning  are 
almost  without  exception  in  pressing  need 
of  larger  endowments,  and  they  make  a 
strong  appeal  to  men  of  vision  that  have 
means  to  aid  them.  Such  gifts  are  a  wise 
investment  that  will  long  serve  the  world. 


115 


XIV 
EDUCATION  AND  LEADERSHIP 

THE  great  men  of  the  world  are  its 
makers.  They  create  history.  They  are 
the  mountain  ranges  and  peaks  that  de- 
termine the  course  of  rivers,  carve  the 
continents,  build  the  plains  and  sow  them 
with  wheatfields  and  orchards  and  cities. 
Cut  them  down  to  the  level  of  common 
men,  and  the  whole  history  of  the  world 
would  be  altered  and  dislocated.  Abraham 
and  Moses,  Isaiah  and  Paul,  Alexander  and 
Caesar,  Plato  and  Socrates,  Confucius  and 
Buddha,  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln,  Newton  and  Darwin 
— how  would  the  course  of  history  have 
been  changed  and  the  level  of  the  world 
lowered  if  these  great  personalities  and 
creative  geniuses  had  not  upheaved  the 
continents  and  pushed  up  the  peaks  of 
civilization!  From  the  slopes  and  sum- 
mits of  their  thoughts  and  deeds  have 
descended  streams  that  have  cut  the 
channels  of  history  and  watered  the  plains 
116 


EDUCATION  AND  LEADERSHIP 

of  the  world.  And  who  can  calculate  the 
enormous  and  infinite  loss  to  the  world 
were  Christ  stricken  from  the  centuries! 

War  that  strips  off  all  our  illusions 
and  uncovers  things  down  to  their  naked 
reality  is  a  terribly  severe  teacher  of  the 
necessity  of  competent  leadership.  Lin- 
coln was  handicapped  through  three  years 
of  failure  in  the  Civil  War  until  he  found 
"a  man  that  would  fight."  He  found 
Grant,  and  then  that  dogged  fighter 
forged  the  scattered  links  of  the  Union 
armies  into  a  continuous  iron  ring  around 
Richmond  that  soon  forced  its  surrender 
and  the  collapse  of  the  Confederacy. 

The  Great  War  taught  the  same  lesson 
on  a  colossal  scale.  The  Allies  muddled 
through  three  years  of  mistakes  and  dis- 
asters with  divided  generalship  and  isolated 
armies  and  broken  fronts.  At  last  the 
necessity  of  dire  extremity  and  imminent 
ruin  forced  unity  of  action  under  a  single 
head,  and  almost  from  the  day  that  all 
armies  along  all  fronts  were  placed  under 
the  supreme  command  of  Foch,  the  Ger- 
mans were  checked  and  then  turned  back 
and  kept  on  retreat  until  they  were  beaten 
to  their  knees,  begging  for  mercy. 
117 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

This  man,  however,  was  no  accident  or 
favorite  of  fortune.  He  did  not  get  his 
place  by  seeking  it,  much  less  by  political 
favoritism  or  wire-pulling,  but  he  was 
the  product  of  long  and  severe  prepara- 
tion. From  youth  he  had  been  a  student 
of  military  affairs,  for  years  he  was  a 
professor  of  tactics  in  a  government  mil- 
itary college,  he  had  been  tried  out  in 
the  arduous  school  of  experience  on  the 
field  of  battle,  and  so  at  last  he  stood 
forth  by  the  principle  of  natural  selection 
as  the  one  man  fitted  for  and  equal  to 
the  great  place  and  mighty  work  that  fell 
to  him  in  a  supreme  hour  and  crisis  and 
agony  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

But  not  only  are  these  overtowering 
personalities  the  makers  of  the  world,  but 
so  also  in  a  lesser  degree  are  all  those 
who  are  called  to  places  of  leadership 
among  us.  The  statesmen  of  any  coun- 
try to-day  hold  its  destinies  in  their  hands. 
The  captains  of  industry  are  the  builders 
of  our  great  business  enterprises,  and 
without  their  leadership  these  vast  com- 
binations of  capital  and  labor  would  go 
to  pieces.  The  newspaper  editor  wields 
an  enormous  influence  in  shaping  and 
118 


EDUCATION  AND  LEADERSHIP 

coloring  as  well  as  disseminating  informa- 
tion and  in  determining  public  opinion. 
The  lawyer  leads  in  his  field,  the  physician 
in  the  hospital,  and  the  minister  in  the 
pulpit.  Quiet  thinkers  in  their  university 
chairs  and  investigators  in  their  observa- 
tories and  laboratories  are  leaders  in  the 
fields  of  widening  knowledge  and  are 
thereby  molding  the  thoughts  of  millions 
of  men  and  of  coming  generations.  Every 
city  or  community  or  country  is  largely 
what  its  leaders  have  made  it.  Bolshevism 
began  by  murdering  its  "intelligensia,"  or 
its  intellectual  and  ruling  classes,  and  then 
came  swift-footed  anarchy  and  chaos  and 
night. 

The  fields  of  leadership  have  multiplied 
in  our  day,  and  demand  thorough  prep- 
aration as  never  before.  No  one  is  born 
with  a  birthright  of  leadership  since  kings 
have  so  generally  gone  out  of  business; 
and  even  kings  must  get  ready  for  their 
office  through  long  and  arduous  prepara- 
tion. Rarely  is  leadership  the  result  of 
mere  favor  or  fortune.  Young  men  in 
beginning  their  work  often  look  up  to  the 
men  in  high  places  and  wonder  how  they 
got  there;  and  they  are  apt  to  think  that 
119 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

these  successful  men  were  boosted  into 
their  positions  by  powerful  friends  or  by 
some  kind  of  "influence,"  or  that  they 
climbed  up  by  cunning  arts  and  intrigue. 
And  so  they  are  in  danger  of  setting  about 
seeking  and  getting  such  places  by  illegit- 
imate means. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  is  some 
measure  of  good  fortune  in  such  success 
and  that  influence  does  often  put  men  in 
desirable  places.  But  let  no  young  man 
count  on  these  things.  Few  are  the  men 
in  high  positions  who  got  there  by  such 
means.  Washington  was  not  an  accident 
in  his  day,  and  Lincoln  was  not  picked 
out  and  put  in  his  place  by  partisan 
politics.  Great  men  have  blazed  their 
own  way  to  fortune  and  left  footsteps 
behind  them  for  us  to  follow.  Worthy 
leadership  cannot  be  inherited  or  bought 
or  got  by  influence,  but  must  be  won  by 
rising  on  the  arduous  steps  of  deeds  done. 

Education  is  the  necessary  preparation 
for  leadership  in  our  day.  An  ignorant 
man  can  only  follow  the  leader  or  boss 
and  do  the  lowest  work  in  the  world. 
Even  to  be  a  good  farmer  or  mechanic 
now  demands  trained  intelligence,  and 
120 


EDUCATION  AND  LEADERSHIP 

young  men  go  through  the  high  school 
and  the  college  to  follow  these  callings. 
Much  more  does  it  require  a  high  degree 
of  preparation  to  be  fitted  for  leadership 
in  teaching,  journalism,  engineering,  large 
business  management,  as  well  as  in  law, 
medicine,  and  the  ministry. 

The  ministry  especially  calls  for  men  of 
large  ability  and  clear  vision  and  ample 
equipment  of  expert  knowledge  and  skill 
to  lead  the  Christian  forces  of  this  age  in 
the  immense  task  of  working  out  the 
social  gospel  and  building  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  the  world. 

Let  no  one  be  so  shallow  and  conceited 
as  to  think  that  he  can  succeed  in  any  of 
these  specialized  fields  without  proper 
training,  and  if  he  is  so  ill-advised  and 
foolish  as  to  try  it,  failure  is  his  sure 
fate.  It  is  no  longer  respectable  or  lawful 
to  attempt  professional  work  without  a 
professional  diploma.  The  price  is  high, 
but  the  privilege  and  the  reward  are  great. 

Never  did  the  world  demand  such  high 
leadership  as  it  must  have  to-day.  It 
now  lies  shattered  at  our  feet  by  the  war^ 
and  upon  us  is  thrown  the  gigantic  task 
of  rebuilding  it  into  a  better  world.  We 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

ought  to  be  glad  that  we  are  alive  in  this 
great  day  and  have  a  part  in  this  immense 
work,  "dwelling  in  a  grand  and  awful 
time,  in  an  age  on  ages  telling,"  when 
simply  "to  be  living  is  sublime."  It  gives 
us  something  great  and  worth  while  to 
live  for,  and  it  will  help  to  make  us  great 
if  we  throw  ourselves  into  it  with  utmost 
devotion.  But  only  competent  leaders 
can  guide  and  inspire  this  work,  and  only 
those  who  have  native  abilities  which 
they  have  developed  and  trained  to  their 
utmost  powers  can  be  such  leaders.  Let 
our  youth  get  ready  for  their  task. 

"God  give  us  men.    A  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  ready 

hands. 

Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill! 
Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy! 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will! 
Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue 
And  damn  his  treacherous  flattering  without  wink- 
ing. 

Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 
In  public  duty  and  hi  private  thinking." 


122 


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